Energy Poverty Jinx

Abstract

The chapter starts by comparing India with China, U.S. and world as a whole in respect of composition, pattern of primary energy use, fuel access to clean cooking energy, and access to electricity for the households. Moving on, this relationship between energy and poverty has preoccupied development economists for decades and begs for a policy dialogue on whether the lack of energy in terms of the 3E's—energy security, energy accessibility, and energy use—makes a nation energy poor or not. This moves the focus on the state of equity in the distribution of energy in India. The chapter, then, looks at the issue of energy poverty, in particular, rural-urban magnitude of energy poverty by estimating the specific concentration curve using National Sample Survey (NSSO) household unit level data from the 68th round (July 2011 – June 2012). To conclude, the study comments on how the optimum fuel mix design should look and talks about sustainable strategies involving the use of new renewables for breaking India's energy poverty jinx.