India Ministerial Dialogue at 3rd India Energy Forum by CERAWeek held in New Delhi

The 3rd India Energy Forum by CERAWeek (Cambridge Energy Research Associates) was conducted in New Delhi from 13-15 October 2019. The Summit, served as a platform to examine the fundamental challenges and opportunities to provide sustainable, secure and affordable energy choices to the nation. Various ministers held key speeches during the forum. Some of them are as follows,

Key topics:

• Renewable energy production: The share of renewable power in electricity has gone up, to 22% in 2019 from the previous share of 10% in 2014-15.
• India investments: By 2023, India is likely to make 58-billion-dollar investment in the exploration and production sector and is also to invest 60 billion dollars by 2024 which is also underway to expand the gas infrastructure, thus making a massive investment of US$118 billion in oil and gas exploration.
• Petroleum products: Inclusion of petroleum products under the GST (Goods and Service Tax) regime, was also appealed to the Union Finance Minister(FM) Nirmala Sitharaman, and would have natural gas and aviation turbine fuel under the GST regime initially.
• Ethanol blend: The government aims to achieve 10% of the blending percentage of ethanol (ethyl alcohol) in petrol by 2022, thus will boost farm economy. Moreover, the ethanol blend percentage also rose from 0.67% in 2012-13 to close to 6% in 2019. 95% households now have access to LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas)
• Electrification: Indian railways has set target to have 100% electrification done by 2023 and also plans to become “net zero” emitter of carbon by 2030.It also plans to source 10% of its electricity needs through renewable energy sources by 2020.
• Coal usage: Coal would play a major role in the Indian energy sector for the next 20-30 years.First of its kind coal gasification technology would be used with setting up of fertilizer plant in Odisha. Per capita coal consumption in India is 1/10th of that in the United States(US).
• Energy production: The Indian government has planned to set up 450GW (GigaWatt) of renewable energy by 2030 and is also preparing to produce low-carbon energy. India is one of the fastest power producing nations, where india was once a power deficit country and improved to power surplus country with various govt initiatives like Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – “Saubhagya”,Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) etc.
• Energy security: The government is committed in providing energy security to the investors. Tax incidence has also been lowered to make investor friendly environment.

Members present:

• Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel,Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Raj Kumar Singh, Minister of State(MoS- independent charge) of Power and New & Renewable Energy and Minister of State, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of finance and Corporate affairs  and various other officials participated in the event.

About India Energy Forum:
The Forum is perhaps the only Indian Organisation which represents energy sector as a whole and serves as an independent advocate of the industry promoting practical solutions to problems affecting project development and finance in India.
Established- October 2001.
Location- New Delhi.