Indian Energy security - the next gen growth engine

With an enormous requirement of about 6-7 lakh MW of additional power in the next about 2 decades to cater for the country's energy security, the Indian energy security could easily be the next gen growth engine and the route adopted to realise this security could lead to the status of economic super power provided the polity and the government take nationalistic decisions without getting cowed down by the economic and political power of the advanced western countries. In this highly competitive world no country is a well wisher of any other country. Every body is looking after its own economic benefit first, the other may gain as a by product. India and for that matter no country that has a potential of jeopardising the economic super power status of advanced countries in any field of economic activity has to be doubly careful for the direct and indirect strings attached, visible or hidden to any  help that is being promised. Giving technologies to smaller countries like Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand etc. that too in inconsequential fields of garment, apparel, shoe making industry, home appliances, computer hardware,electronics and auto mobile ancillaries to save on their own manufacturing costs. The small population of these countries could be easily elevated beyond the poverty levels and  see some benefits of industrialisation and prosperity accruing to them.

We have been witness to the horrendous effects of dependence and reliance on the technology and consumable resources in all walks of life, energy and power generation being no exceptions. We have seen the effect of cartelisation by the oil producers who have made full use of increased global demand by increasing the prices of oil many many folds. In the last decade India tried to depend on imported coal for its power generation requirements and coal prices have been doubled up by the exporting countries without even resorting to any cartelisation. Imagine what will happen if these countries also form an OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) like body to squeeze maximum benefits out of their natural resources.Why is India forgetting its own old experiences of nuclear power plants. India had sunk in a lot of money in nuclear power plants during seventies and eighties of twentieth century but could never run them efficiently ( so much so even today we are running them at 50% of the installed capacity ) because of consumable and critical technology denials by the same countries who are now claiming to be willing to help India out with nuclear power stations. What are the safeguards against the same story not being repeated again either through denial or asking for exorbitant prices for consumables and critical components. Incidentally India is even now being denied  research tools that are available with some of their own universities even. In such a backdrop Is Nuclear Power Option a Wise Option or A Fraud on the Nation .In any case Indian Energy Security, through nuclear power route is neither the next gen growth engine nor the means to attain economic super power status for the country. It is definitely the route to maintaining the economic super power status of western world by letting them fleece an aspiring India through sale of defunct and obsolete technology which is out of sync with realities of twenty first century and in the process building up their strengths in the various fields of renewable energy to harness the economic prowess of eternal in situ available energies.In fact they want to make best use of the huge opportunity that exists in an energy starved nation of 1 billion plus. Can Indian politicians and government make full use of this colossus opportunity of becoming global leaders and an economic super power knocking at their doors and not waste it in raising the prosperity level of its masses by a notch or two.

Renewable energy is the answer for all futuristic Energy security not only of India but of entire world and that is why the countries with vision like Germany, Japan etc. are bent upon phasing out nuclear power option at a rather rapid pace and adding up solar at a feverish pace..The yearly additions of renewable energy particularly of solar and wind energy are growing exponentially in spite of fossil fuel and nuclear energy cartels trying their best with powerful misinformation campaigns advocating their importance for global energy security. The reasons can be summed up as follows:

• No deleterious effects on environment and thus ability to contribute in reducing global warming in the short run and taking it back to early twentieth century level in the long run.
• In situ availability
• Eternal availability in comparison to limited availability of all fuels.
• Suitability for standalone requirements as also micro,mini and large grid systems requirements.
• Immunity against inflation and other kind of price escalations as far as energy from the source is concerned.
• No infra and logistics spends required to gain access at the power plant site as is required in case of all fuels.
• With passage of time, power produced by renewable energy sources is only going to be cheaper and better through researches in the fields of better energy conversion, hybridisation, storage etc.

It is time to leave the beaten path and catapult Indian energy security effort to renewable and renewable energy sources alone to make best use of the opportunity window provided by enormous requirements of this energy starved nation of 1 billion plus to realise the dream of energy security in a reasonable time frame.

Infrastructure and Human Resource Development: Next Gen Growth Engines of Indian Economy

'Money makes the mare go' the old adage is relevant to everything in human life and applies equally to India's growth story. Ample finances can be made available in the government's kitty through meaningful concerted efforts in the areas of corruption mitigation and good governance to progress and sustain Infrastructure development and human resource development, the next gen growth engines of Indian Economy. India is destined to achieve much bigger things in world's economy rather than the 7-8 % growth rates which have been given to us on a platter by the compulsions of developed world. If India fails to accord topmost priority to these two extremely important growth engines to bring them at par with the developed world in a short span of about a decade or so it will miss the ominous dream of being a prosperous nation as also the world leaders on the economic and technology front. Such opportunity slots normally last for about a decade or so for in the meanwhile the advanced countries  recover and newer third world countries present more lucrative options.
Infrastructure development comprising of Roads, Construction, Rail, Airports, Ports, Power generation and transmission, Irrigation, Telecom etc. is one of the keys to development of a country because it

•  is manpower intensive and a big job creator directly and indirectly through other allied industries.
•  generates a huge demand of steel, cement, capital goods, machinery, trucks, wagons etc..
•  improves upon logistics of men, materials, agricultural produce so very essential to any country's growth story.

Human Resource  is equally important growth engine of the Indian economy and until and unless nurtured with an immediate hugely intense national effort will convert into a national drain on the Indian growth potential. The favourable demography picture of human resource in India is going to last for a decade and a half at the most as the ratio of available working  hands to non working stomachs with claims on retirement pensionery benefits will keep on dwindling from now onwards. This will result out of a likely decrease in birth rates as the education and prosperity levels rise and accompanied increase in average life span. India has to make best use of this favourable human resource demography opportunity window.The developed countries became rich before they aged where as India and Indian polity has to strive very very hard and meticulously to get out of this catch 22 situation of getting old before getting rich. 

Human resource development of all segments of manpower  has to be accorded topmost priority because it will

•  result in massive industrial productivity increase through efforts to convert all unskilled workers to semi skilled ones and improving the capabilities of skilled, technical, administrative and managerial workforce of the country.
• result in enormous up gradation of the country's  education system through value additions to the capabilities of educationalists and teachers which will enable individuals to think for the betterment of their own families and country and will be a great help in having a responsible and responsive democracy in the country.

Corruption Mitigation and Good Governance - The Biggest Growth Engines for Indian Economy

The Indian dream of becoming an economic superpower and a prosperous nation appears to be a distinct reality in the light of government's compulsion to address the expectations of the masses and the compulsions of the advanced industrial nations of the world to move manufacturing bases to low wage economies with strengths of a broad based human resource and large captive markets. The resulting Indian growth story is here to stay for the next three decades provided the Indian governance can take care of the stumbling blocks in the path of this growth trajectory with correct policies, financial and administrative reforms, human resource development, massive up gradation of infrastructure and above all good governance.Out of this large wish list, Corruption Mitigation is perhaps potentially the biggest growth engine with a large weightage and can contribute 50% extra towards annual Indian budgets in the following manner.Corruption Mitigation and good governance are interdependent and measures like strict policing, quick judicial disposal of economic offences backed by corruption mitigating administrative reforms are the very backbone of this fight against corruption and black money.

• The direct and indirect tax collections will increase by a minimum of 25% annually for the next twenty years.
• The overall subsidy budget comprising of gas, oil, food etc can reduce by 50%.
• Through the same annual budgetary allocations for infrastructure, an extra 25% infrastructure development can take place.
• The annual maintenance cost allocations for infrastructural assets of the nation could be reduced by 90%.
• The annual savings on petrol, diesel and repairs of vehicles could be as high as 25%.

This effort alone can catapult the Indian growth story potential into growth rates of low teens.We can only hope, wait and watch how the Indian polity puts into action corruption mitigation programs for which a lot of rhetoric has been raised by one and all of the Indian polity. On top of it India can manage to recover a substantial amount of black money stashed in foreign countries as well as in Indian households and businesses, the miracle of propelling India into the developed nations' club will be realised much sooner.