How Does India's Energy Security Affect Her National Security?

India faces formidable challenges in meeting its energy needs and providing adequate and varied energy of desired quality to users in a sustainable manner and at reasonable costs. With a population in excess of one billion, India needs economic growth for human development, which in turn requires access to clean, convenient and reliable energy for all. The keys to energy security are assurance of supply and diversity of sources. As India seeks to secure her energy security needs, it is probable that she will seek to explore new options. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to spiraling oil prices which have adversely affected the Indian economy. The major impediments to India's ability to secure her energy are inadequate domestic energy capacity, the conflicting interests with China and India's geographic location. The Indian government has followed a policy of resource diversification. Overland trans-national energy pipelines are one of the options being explored by India to meet her energy security requirements. Overland trans-national energy pipelines by their very nature incorporate multiple nations (source nations, transit nations and destination nations) and are affected by regional and geo-strategic interests of the nations involved. Thus, they provide an excellent platform for analysis of India's energy and geo-strategic interests and its security. Based on this premise the study shall limit itself to assessing the feasibility of overland trans-national energy pipelines and determining the effects of such pipelines on India's energy security and its national security.