‘Time to undertake energy reforms is now’ amid global uncertainty: Rajiv Kumar, ex-Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog at WION World Pulse summit

Rajiv Kumar, former vice chairman, NITI Aayog, on Wednesday (Mar 18) stressed that now is the time to undertake energy reforms in India. He was speaking at the WION World Pulse – The Leaders’ Confluence in New Delhi. His remarks come amid the heightened global uncertainty over energy supply amid the Iran war. He added India should reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and work on renewables. Kumar was speaking at the session ‘Economy Pulse: Reimagining Trade and Commerce’.

The economist highlighted that 85 per cent of India’s energy requirements currently rely on fossil fuel imports. “We should now work towards improving our achievement of energy security,” Kumar said. “Our dependence on that has now shown up already. We don’t need to have that dependence.”

He added that we need to work on renewables, electric vehicles, and hydrogen. “Its not the issue of whether we have not been able to do so – of course not – but whether we should be doing now,” he said.

According to him, India should not just focus on the generation of hydrogen fuel, but also on its transmission, storage, and distribution. “This is the time to undertake very necessary energy reforms in the country,” he stressed.

'New world order will see emergence of India, China, BRICS nations'

Kumar suggested that India, China and other BRICS nations would emerge as leading countries and would reject the post-World War II order, which has become “dysfunctional” and “useless”. He added that a new world order would be the one in which Indo-Pacific would emerge as far more important than trans-Atlantic, adding that it will be shaped by India, China, and other BRICS member countries.

What has worked for India amid global uncertainty?

Kumar lauded the government’s commitment to the growth of the country, which has worked for India amid global uncertainty.

“What’s worked for India is the amazing commitment of the political leadership to growth, infrastructure, innovation, skills, education, and health. Essentially, what’s happened since 2014 is that we have a political leadership which is without any sort of distraction is committed to growth and infrastructure development and identify very early on the bottlenecks, the constraints which are holding India back and is focused on that,” Kumar said. “That’s the one biggest thing that has worked for India”

‘Trade is not about trust’

Speaking about the volatile global trade situation triggered by tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz that has crippled global energy supply, Kumar said, “We’ve never trusted each other. This is a mercantilist world. Trade is not about trust; trade is about getting benefits from each other, which is why you have organisations like the WTO, which says, ‘Look, let’s define some rules which we can work together’. East India Company downwards, trust is not the lexicon of world trade.”

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