India must talk energy

India will increasingly become an energy great power, but not an energy hegemon

Until the not so distant past, India was a marginal player in global energy. That story is rapidly changing.

India was, and still is, heavily dependent on imports of fossil energy resources. As a result, it was worried about the macroeconomic impacts of global oil shocks. The rupee had depreciated after the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq war in 1980s resulted in shortfalls of oil and oil products, the first Gulf War forced India to purchase large quantities of expensive oil in the spot market, the Kurdish civil war in 1996 again triggered a spike in the current account deficit, and the