M1L1: Importance of Energy in human resource & economic development

Energy is the life line of the economy. We always studied, ‘Energy is the capacity to do work’. But is it the only thing? Let’s dig deeper and figure it out.

[1] Back in the 1970s, an average citizen of India could only dream of using a fan. At that time, even electricity was a luxury. For a person, born in the 1970s, owning a bike or a two-wheeler during his college days was a luxury.

Then came the era of Capitalism. India navigated its economy from an almost socialist to a capitalist economy. Now we see that an average citizen uses a fan, electricity is no longer a luxury and possessing a two-wheeler is no longer a display of being rich.

If you look closely from all these facts, you must have noticed one thing. Our standard of living has improved. But parallel to this is also adjoined the fact that our per capita energy consumption has also increased. Just think about it. We graduated from using a fan that we used to rotate with hands to an electric fan and then now to an AC. We graduated from bicycle to a bike to a car. So, while our standard of living has improved, this is can be attributed to the fact that we could do this since we graduated from less energy intensive to higher energy intensive machines.  In the light of this, you can also argue the fact that a person without any access to electricity, when graduated to full-time access to electricity suggests an improvement in her standard of living.

So, may I ask this question? If we want to improve the standard of living of each and every citizen of India, pull every single citizen out of poverty, is improving the per capita energy consumption a panacea for it? Based on the above example, you may answer ‘yes’ to it. But wait.

Improving per capita energy availability is important in terms of quantity. Just like graduating from using a scooter to a car to an SUV suggests an improvement in standard of living, based on the fact that the latter stage consumes more energy, it is also equally important to see that the quality of energy is also good. For e.g. when we compare a person getting warmth from a fire, to a person getting warmth from an electric heater, we find that both of them gain an almost an equal amount of heat energy. This is despite the fact that the source in each case is different. Now a closer look at the two sources will reveal that the former source (outdoor fire) is less efficient, while the latter one is more efficient in giving the same amount of heat energy. So, while access to energy is important, it is equally important to know, what kind of energy? Or what is the grade of that energy i.e. the quality of that energy. Better quality will help improve productivity more effectively than a lower grade of energy. So, may I ask now, in the following case which I quote, which technique helps to improve productivity more effectively?  When a lady is given access to open sigrees that uses biomass (that contributes to indoor air pollution) or when the same lady is given access to a stove that uses LPG, that burns clean. Can you guess the answer for me?

Thus summarizing, while access to energy is important to improve human productivity, it is equally important to see what grade of energy is used.

[2] The government has come out with ambitious plans to increase the share of manufacturing sector in the economy to more than 25%. Now the first thing that comes here is the fact that manufacturing requires electricity. Access to electricity is always at the core, when the decision is made to invest in layers of technology that is required for manufacturing. Thus, when we started our schools, we were told that energy is the capacity to work.  But now we know that energy is not only limited to an individual. It is the lifeline of every economy.

“When you control food, you control the people.

When you control the oil, you control the nation.”

~ Henry Kissinger.

With this we turn our head to the next topic, what is the structure of energy consumption in India. But before turning the page, write an essay on

1.    How India can improve its energy security in this era, when we are continuously facing multiple disruptions in our external environment and the world is equally concerned about hacking the impact of global warming and climate change.

2.    List out all the government policies aimed at improving the access to higher grade of energy