Union Budget 2025: Initiatives that can make India self-reliant in energy

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The budget often deals with short-term problems and there are several of those relating to energy that we need to attend to urgently. The biggest is our concern for energy security to make India as much as possible aatmanirbhar to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels, much of which we import--85% of oil, 50% of gas and almost 20% of coal.

Over the long run, India has to depend on renewables such as solar and wind. Another important issue is severe air pollution in India's cities due to coal-based power plants and vehicular pollution. However, the short-term policies have to keep in mind the long-term vision.

India has promised decarbonization leading to net zero by 2070. This is important for the world but also for India, as the country is highly vulnerable to climate change. It is, therefore, in our interest to see that the world attains net zero as soon as possible.

Energy security requires that we promote renewables to replace coal in power generation and also promote electric vehicles as much as possible and cut down the use of fossil fuels. In doing these, two issues need to be addressed. Many of the power distribution companies (discoms) make significant losses.

The reason is large AT&C losses (short for aggregate T&D and commercial losses, an euphemism for power theft). For example, in 2022-23 they were 22.33% in Uttar Pradesh, 21.85% in Odisha, 20.55% in Madhya Pradesh, and 19.04% in Maharashtra. Many initiatives by the central government, including the latest revamped distribution sector scheme (RDSS) promising money for reducing AT&C losses, have not worked as expected.