(Author’s Note September 3 2008: This article “Need for Clarity” published in The Statesman last year was one of several I have published on the subject; see also, for example, “Towards an Energy Policy”, “India’s Energy Interests” , “Against Quackery” all published first in The Statesman in 2006 and 2007; also “India and ‘Energy Security'” which was my lecture to a KAF conference on the subject. It seems quite prescient in that it anticipated by a few months the “secret” letter from the US Executive Branch to the Legislative Branch, released by the Washington Post today . India’s UPA Government has put forward a junior spokesman from the Congress Party to waffle around with a purported explanation. )
August 24, 2007 at 4:18 am
“What the Manmohan-Montek Planning Commission needed to do first of all was a thorough cost-benefit analysis of India’s energy requirements but such elementary professionalism has been sorely lacking among our economists for decades”
I must have read dozens of “expert” opinions on this matter but found this article to be most lucid. Manmohan is just happy that he got a deal done with George Bush (oh the legacy….). The BJP is being opportunistic – yet somehow its official position may be the best of a bad lot on this issue. As you say, what is the hurry? But we do need to deregulate the coal sector – just like many other sectors. Despite our vast reserves, even current thermal plants are having logistical difficulties and inventory issues. A beginning of coal reserve privatization has been done.
September 6, 2007 at 2:29 pm
I think this is finally an article that lets one know the whole story in a nutshell. But I still find it hard to understand the involvement of CII or other “institutional investors” in this matter.
July 22, 2008 at 7:04 am
This clear article exposes the greed pushing through the Indo-US nuclear deal. There is also the prohibitive costs of nuclear plants: not a single nuclear plant has been installed in America in the last three decades! The potentially devastating hazards from nuclear reactors is also greater compared to other forms of energy etc. Our rulers chant ‘ahimsa’ but build horrible nuclear weapons!