India’s Pursuit of Energy: Security Domestic Measures ...€¦ · India’s Pursuit of Energy: Security Domestic Measures, Foreign Policy and Geopolitics Guest Speaker: Senator

National Platinum Partners National Gold Partners

Australia India Business Council Queensland Chapter

We are delighted to invite you to attend the Book Launch

Authored by Dr. Ashok Sharma

India’s Pursuit of Energy: Security Domestic Measures, Foreign Policy and Geopolitics

Guest Speaker: Senator The Hon Matthew Canavan Facilitator: Jim Varghese AM

The book is a comprehensive take on how India is pursuing its energy security in domestic and foreign policy context in a carbon-controlled and competitive geopolitical environment. The book uses a

conceptual framework of four As: Availability, Accessibility, Affordability and Acceptability to deal with topic in a comprehensive manner. It’s very much relevant to Australia as energy and resources dominate Australia-India bilateral trade, and Australia has the capability to contribute to India’s energy quest and

benefit from that.

Date, Time & Venue20th September 2019

12.00 pm - 2.00 pmCustoms House

Queen Street, Brisbane, QLD

Entry by Ticket AIBC Members - $132 per personNon-Members - $155 per person

(Lunch and a signed copy of the book included) RSVP: [email protected]

RSVP Closes 12th September 2019 Midnight How to Register? CLICK HERE

Event Sponsor

Senator The Hon Matthew Canavan Deputy Leader of The Nationals in the Senate, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia

Matthew grew up in Logan just south of Brisbane. After achieving a First Class Honours Degree in Economics at the University of Queensland, Matthew worked at the Productivity Commission where he eventually rose to the level of Director.During that time Matthew worked on projects ranging from competition laws, housing affordability to counting the number of policies that Australian governments have introduced to tackle climate change (the answer was 244).Becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of coherent economic policy by the Rudd Government, Matthew went to work for Barnaby Joyce as his Chief-of-Staff ahead of the 2010 election. In that role, Matthew helped develop policies to provide tax concessions for vital infrastructure and to encourage people to move to the regions, worked on a Senate inquiry that recommended stricter environmental controls on coal seam gas developments and developed a Coalition report on the potential to invest in new dams throughout Australia.At the 2013 election Matthew was elected to the Senate. He took up his position as a Senator in the Nationals party room in July 2014 as a Senator based in Rockhampton, the first Senator to be based in Rockhampton for more than 20 years.Matthew is a former Lions Youth of the Year and worked as a Leader with the Christian Brothers on Edmund Rice Camps, where he met his wife. They now live in Yeppoon near Rockhampton, with their four sons and baby daughter.While Matthew’s family is very proud of him being preselected by the LNP to run for the Senate, his Father remains slightly disappointed that he gave up cricket at 16 and therefore never fulfilled his true calling to play test cricket for Australia.

Jim Varghese AMNational Chair, Australia India Business Council (AIBC)Jim Varghese AM is National Chair AIBC. He is also the chairman and owner of the Leadership Company Qld Pty Ltd and Director of the Springfield Land Corporation (SLC). Jim completed a very successful period as the Chief Executive Officer of the SLC and from April 2012, and continues as an Executive Director of the SLC. Jim was also appointed part-time Executive Director (Business Development) for the Australia India Institute in November 2014.Jim is an accomplished author and contributor of articles on information management, crisis management, change and organisational transformation. Jim served for over three years as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland. He has also served on the Council of Queensland University of Technology, the Senate of University of Queensland and is currently serving on the Council of the University of Southern Queensland. He holds the formal qualifications of Bachelor of Arts with Honours in contemporary Australian History and Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Queensland. He also holds a Master of Business Administration and a Diploma in Education from Melbourne University.

Dr Ashok SharmaDr. Ashok Sharma is currently a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra, at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA). Dr, Sharma is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Institute of Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra. He was the Head of “South Asia Strategic, Security and State Fragile Program” and Conjoint Head of “Indo-Pacific and Major Power Studies Program” at the National Asian Studies Centre at the University of Canberra. He is also a Deputy Chair at New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Auckland. Prior to joining the UNSW at ADFA in 2016, Dr Sharma was a Fellow at Australia–India Institute, the University of Melbourne, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland, a Visiting Academic at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, and an Endeavour Post- Doctoral Fellow at the Australian National University in 2008.

Dr Sharma has a BA (Hons) in Political Science from Ramjas College, University of Delhi, an MA in Political Science and an MPhil and PhD in American Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He was a Faculty at the University of Delhi and worked with think tanks based in New Delhi, namely Brookings Project at the Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Air Power Studies and Centre for Land Warfare Studies.Dr Sharma specializes in great power politics with emphasis on US–India–China geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region. An astute observer of India-US relations and one of the leading experts on India’s global positioning, Dr. Sharma is extensively published. Prior to his latest book on India’s Pursuit of Energy Security, Ashok is the author of well-received book Indian Lobbying and its Influence in US Decision Making: Post-Cold War (SAGE Publications, 2017). His books in the progress are tentatively titled India’s Web of Allies in the Emerging International Order and India-US Relations in the 21st Century , and one to be co-authored with Prof. Raghbendra Jha, ANU on Sustainability, Governance and the Global Bad

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After an edifying and well-received book, Indian Lobbying and its Influence in US Decision Making, Dr Ashok Sharma turns his focus on an increasingly critical sector of India’s domestic and foreign policy—energy security—key to its economic ambitions. The country faces several challenges—environmental, equity-based, economic, technological and geopolitical—to meet its energy deficit. They have powerful implications for India’s energy policy. Dr Sharma’s comprehensive study concludes that the choices the country has made balance the demands of these challenges both effectively and strategically. This timely and scholarly book dealing with the complex issue of energy security is highly recommended for academics, policymakers and anyone seriously interested in India’s quest for energy security.

- Ambassador Lalit MansinghFormer Foreign Secretary of India and Ambassador to the United States

After his first seminal book Indian Lobbying and Its Influence on US Decision Making, Dr Sharma takes a thorough study of India’s energy security. Dr Sharma observes that much of the global energy demand will be due to growth from India and China. India, the world’s third largest energy consumer, will continue to supersede the growth rate of all major economies. This will increase its oil and gas import dependency. India is also turning to renewables and nuclear sources, signalling a shift to a more environment-friendly energy policy. Dr Sharma argues that India’s energy policy is in need of a multifaceted approach. The domestic measures and reserves are not sufficient. The book is a thorough and meticulous account of India’s attempt to diversify its oil and gas imports dependency on the Middle East, and how such a pursuit places India in direct competition with China which is further intensified by a complex great power politics in the Indo-Pacific region. A must-read for both academic and policy professionals and anyone interested in the evolution of India’s quest for energy security and the consequent geopolitical ramifications.

- Emeritus Professor Dov Bing

Department of Political Science and Public Policy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand-

This remarkable book by Ashok Sharma is, to the best of my knowledge, the first to examine key issues related to India’s energy security in a comprehensive manner. Several factors combine to make energy security one of the key challenges facing not just India but the world economy as well. While high GDP growth rates in India are necessary to raise living standards and reduce poverty, such growth rates will also sharply raise energy demand. The source and composition of such energy are also crucial given the twin challenges of climate change as well as the paucity of domestic sources of energy, the latter necessitating India’s deep involvement in energy diplomacy to face challenges from China. Sharma’s book is an erudite exposition of all these key issues. It will be invaluable to policymakers and students. I recommend it strongly.

- Professor Raghbendra Jha

Executive Director, Australia South Asia Research Centre, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

CONTENTS

• Foreword by V.K. Singh• Preface• Acknowledgements• Energy Security as a Concept: Thematic Issues in India’s Energy Security in Domestic

and International Settings• India’s Energy Reserves and Energy Mix: Addressing the Demand in a Carbon

Controlled Environment • India’s Domestic Measures to Energy Security: Exploration and Production,

Privatization and Energy Efficiency• Energy Security as a Foreign Policy Priority: India’s Diversification of Energy

Acquisition Sources and Exploration Abroad• India’s Quest for Atomic Energy: Diplomacy and Nuclear Agreements• India’s Quest for Energy Security Abroad: India-China Energy Geopolitics and Great

Game• Conclusion• Bibliography• Index