Powering the Amrit Kaal
Context:
- India will be responsible for roughly 25% of the increase in global energy demand between 2020 and 2040, according to projections from the IEA and BP Energy Outlook. India has the fastest-growing major economy in the world with rising energy demand.
- Ensuring energy access, availability, and affordability is crucial for our sizable population. This supports our case and explains why our energy strategy is now universally viewed as being practical and well-balanced.
Ensuring that energy justice is done to the people:
- The price of diesel in India has fallen over the past year, although the price of gasoline and diesel climbed by 35–40% in the US, Canada, Spain, and the UK. This is despite the country importing over 85% of its needs for crude oil and 55% of its needs for natural gas.
- Despite the fact that many of the countries in our neighbourhood have had power outages and dry outs to manage demand, there has never been a fuel shortage in India, not even during times of floods and other natural calamities.
- The Center and many states twice announced decreases in the excise tax and VAT rates.
- Being decent corporate citizens, oil PSUs took on large losses to protect Indian customers from being impacted by the sharp increases in the price of crude oil and natural gas on the international market.
- The amount of APM gas that was subsidised for the city gas distribution sector was increased, even at the expense of lowering the captive use of domestic gas by our own PSUs.
- To prevent refiners and manufacturers from profiting from domestic consumers, a windfall tax on domestically produced petroleum products and an export cess on gasoline, diesel, and ATF were also implemented.
Increasing energy spheres:
- The number of nations in India’s network of crude oil suppliers has increased over time, from 27 to 39.
- India has further reinforced ties with countries like the US (energy trade has expanded 13 times in the past four years) and Russia in order to ensure a steady supply of crude oil.
- India’s important market position as the third-largest importer in the world guaranteed affordable energy for Indian consumers while also giving stability to the global petroleum markets.
Taking a look at home production and looking at new energy sources:
- India’s top priority are the discovery of conventional fuels and the switch to renewable energy.
- India may be the licencing wildcard in 2023, according to consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, which is a consequence of the reforms that have turned India into a desirable energy and power destination.
- It has reduced the prohibited/no-go zones in our exclusive economic zone (EEZ) by 97%, eliminating about 1 million square kilometres of them.
- But, India is committed to keeping its climate change commitments, and as demonstrated in Glasgow, it plans to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070 and cut emissions by 1 billion tonnes by the end of 2030.
- India is accelerating its efforts to switch to a gas-based economy by increasing the share of gas from the current 6.3% to 15% by 2030. India has given clean cooking fuel to more than 9.5 crore families during the last nine years.
- The length of India’s gas pipeline network increased from 14,700 km in 2014 to 22,000 km in 2023.
- India achieved a key advancement in the biofuel revolution with the launch of E20, a gasoline blend containing 20% ethanol that would be made available in 15 cities around India over the course of the following two years.
- 17% of gasoline in 2023 in India will contain ethanol, up from just 1.53% in 2013–14.
- Additionally, five second-generation ethanol plants are being built in India that can convert agricultural waste into biofuel, reducing air pollution from burning stubble and giving farmers money.
- The National Green Hydrogen Mission, with a budget of Rs 19,744 crore, was established to improve the country’s green hydrogen ecosystem and hasten India’s progress towards its objective of producing 4 MT of green hydrogen yearly.
- It would have cut imports of fossil fuels by Rs 1 lakh crore by 2030. India is on track to fully realise its potential for creating a sustainable hydrogen ecosystem by the year 2030.
Conclusion:
- India is integrating the conversion of its future mobility corridors. As a result, India is encouraging the development of electric vehicles through a production-linked incentive scheme to produce advanced fuel cells with a 50 gigawatt-hour capacity as well as green hydrogen and biofuels.
- Achieving energy independence and security is a primary aim for enhancing people’s lives as part of Amrit Kaal’s vision to expand to a $26 trillion economy by 2047.
