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The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan has completed 25 years of energy cooperation with India. The idea was/is for Bhutan to facilitate Indian funding for setting up hydro-power projects in the country,

It is not difficult to imagine that the Chinese will be uncomfortable with the current scenario. China is against any "outside power" being involved in the South China Sea, though its own forces are regularly operating in the Indian Ocean region.

The seventh of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims “to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” by 2030. Such quest for energy security is echoed in subregional strategies as well; in the BIMSTEC region, it is a key priority. As the gap in electricity supply and demand increases in the countries of BIMSTEC, trans-border cooperation can help diversify energy sources, reduce the average cos

Can Africa’s energy transition break the resource curse? With global aid shrinking, African leaders look to clean energy to boost growth, jobs, and autonomy

India is increasingly serving as a model for countries worldwide by demonstrating how economic development and environmental conservation can be complementary.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is central to the country’s ambitious policy reorientation. The energy sector accounts for nearly 40 percent of all investments under the BRI, with significant geostrategic and geoeconomic implications. In recent years, China has adopted a “greening the BRI” strategy, emphasising green energy projects. This brief analyses China’s BRI investments in the energy sector to establish the potential trend

For Russia and even Central Asian countries, China can act as a catalyst to market their hydrocarbon resources to South Asia and beyond, opening an opportunity for gas exports too. Russia's $400 billion gas deal with China is a case in point.

After a successful launch in January this year in Berlin, the Economic Policy Forum, a new alliance of think tanks from emerging economies and selected developed economies, met at a conference on 'Resources Policy: Energy and Environment.' The meeting also facilitated an initial conversation on 'The Prospects for Regional Integration.'

The First Energy Ministry of India was constituted under interesting circumstances. The former Energy Minister of India, Shri K. C. Pant delivered a talk at ORF on July 14, 2006 presenting his views on the fifty years of India's energy policy

India’s target of achieving 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 might appear ambitious, but it is crucial as it will have a positive impact on the country’s economic growth, energy security and the fight against climate change. Financing is emerging as the key challenge to this vision, slowing down the pace of growth; as of December 2019, over 50 percent of the 2022 target is yet to be achieved. This brief outlines India’s existing

In all the hype and hyperbole about what to do with coal blocks, the plain fact is that the real danger lies in our coal reserves turning valueless for the country, of no benefit to the owner - the people of the land. They will be value less if we don't extract them before they turn un-burnable by climate action a few decades from now.

The May 2007 summit at Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan between Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan has once again brought the Central Asian Republics (CARs), especially Turkmenistan, in the limelight of international energy politics.

As the debate on restarting two nuclear reactors in Oi is hotting up in Japan, the Noda government needs to both give the newly announced nuclear regulatory body time to create the promised new regulations while also ensuring the people and industry do not suffer due to power shortage.

Even if there’s a ground invasion by Israel into Gaza and an extended conflict, the impact on energy prices and the resultant OPEC response would depend on the scale and reach that the conflict takes. If it remains localised without affecting major oil producers or transit routes, prices may see limited immediate change, prompting OPEC to maintain current production levels

Given the need to prioritise growth in the developing world, the goals must be 'development-climate compatible,' not, 'climate-development compatible', according to Dr. Youba Sokona, coordinator, African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) based in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

The emergence of this new grouping is clearly an outcome of the Abraham Accords of Aug 2020 and the possibilities that they have created for Israel and the UAE to be on the same platform with India and the US. As President Biden moves to Saudi Arabia for the second leg of his visit to West Asia, we are likely to see a push towards integrating Israel through trade, technology, direct flights and people-to-people contact even with countries where f

India's macro position on equity at international fora such as Rio +20 must be reflected in its domestic resolve to offer energy equitably to its diverse population. The imperatives of creating a 'green economy' must only follow and complement such efforts.

The Government, despite being corrupt and inefficient, does not want to be seen as favouring the private sector and therefore forgoes higher earnings in terms of royalty, taxes, jobs and profit share that it may benefit from if gas producers are given greater freedom.

Around the world, nuclear energy has taken a back seat because of the risks that reactors bring with them.

There is a chance of breaking China's hegemony in Central Asia, particularly with respect to its energy harvest, which it has consolidated.

Indian diplomacy seems to be drawing a blank when it comes to regional cooperation involving fine diplomacy and seasoned statecraft. The recent events relating to India's attempts towards getting natural gas from Bangladesh and Myanmar and the negative response from Bangladesh suggest that it is unlikely to obtain any gesture of

India's ties with Iran have clearly been strained by the latter's tumultuous relationship with the United States, with the Iran factor equally imposing constraints on India-US relations. India has had to walk a diplomatic tightrope in balancing its relationships with these countries.

India's urgent requirements for hydrocarbons seem to be prompting it to look for proverbial strange bedfellows. Shrugging off the ideological baggage of the Cold War era and the Nehruvian idealism, India is all set to pursue a realistic foreign policy.

Economic ties were the cornerstone of Indo-Soviet relations. Even the 1971 Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, which was essentially of a political-security nature, stressed upon “economic, scientific and technological cooperation”.[1] Although the India-Russia ties in general survived the upheavals of the early 1990s, economic relations began to cool in the post-Soviet period. Despite many ambitious targets set during various

Economic ties between India and Russia have remained the weakest link in their bilateral relationship since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Both countries have set out to correct this in the past two years, making efforts to diversify their relationship beyond the defence and energy sectors as they navigate a changing world order. This brief analyses the developments in India-Russia relations since the May 2018 Sochi informal summit and the 201

India is all set to further its energy cooperation with Sudan. Reports suggest that ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) has decided to invest $1 billion in Sudan to acquire 25% stakes of the 5A/5B oil projects in Sudan. The project is currently owned by Austrians.

In the last four decades, India’s geo-political identity has evolved from being the leader of the non-aligned movement - a representative of the developing poor nations of the world to becoming a member of the G-20, the world’s leading industrialized and emerging economies. The change has also been evident on its evolving position on climate change as it became a signatory to The Paris accord. However, the paper argues that key tenets of self

The chief economist of BP Group, Mr. Christof Ruehl, says the industrial sector is less flexible in India than in China and that this could drive the energy demand in 2012-2035 period. He also predicts that China's industrialisation will continue even if it changes its economy structure.

Energy transitions in developing economies like India are complex processes involving substantial financial and technological resources as well as appropriate innovation. These transitions are central to the climate debate, where emphasis is placed on increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change. This paper examines the historical attributes of energy transition and finds various critical

Over the past few years, there is noticeable amongst India watchers an inescapable feeling of disappointment at what has been seen as a perceptible rolling back of many of the much vaunted reforms that had been the face of the country's efforts to integrate with world energy markets through the turn of the century. With an import dependence of over 70%, and increasing with each passing year, the petroleum sector had been the obvious choice to mov

China and India, sooner than later, must assume regional leadership, which must be inclusive, allowing for not just coopera-tion and collaboration but the accom-modation of all stakeholders in energy. Despite their burgeoning share in energy market, both countries remain price takers rather than price makers now.

During the recent INSS-ORF dialogue, there was a consensus that, while perhaps the origin of the terror threat is different, this is an area where cooperation can and should be enhanced.

One compelling reason for Japan to adopt the new energy policy was the Abe government's recognition that in the absence of nuclear energy, which accounted for 30% of the total electricity until recently, the country had to pay heavily for importing oil and gas from abroad.

Canada’s world-class energy resources and national interests in global energy diplomacy must be articulated coherently and to the fullest

The seventh of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. This challenge is acute in the African continent, home to large populations without access to electricity and clean cooking fuel. This brief explores the scope for cooperation between India and Africa in not only achieving SDG 7, but while doing so, also considering the targets set by SDG 5 to

This report is part of the Observer Research Foundation’s “Financing Green Transitions” series which aims to find potential linkages between private capital, in all its forms, and climate action projects. The series will primarily examine domestic and international barriers to private capital entry for mitigation oriented climate projects, while also examining potential avenues for private capital flow entry towards adaptation and resilienc

India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces a tough challenge in balancing cost-optimisation for ordinary people while mitigating environmental risks, meeting the needs of stakeholders and interest groups from energy companies to activists to regular folk who rest their hopes on his electoral promises of cheaper, cleaner and safer power.