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THE ENERGY CRISIS AND
INDIAN DEVELOPMENT
Paul F. Power*
*Research for this paper was aided by the Taft Committee and the Research Coun-
cil of the University of Cincinnati. A report on the project was given at the South Asia
Conference held at the University of Wisconsin (Oshkosh), November 14-15, 1975.
'Rajni Kothari, Politics in India (Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1970), pp. 339-340.
328
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PAUL F. POWER 329
2Ramashray Roy, "India: 1973 A Year of Discontent," Asian Survey, XIV (Febru-
ary 1974), pp. 115-125. Analysis of India's food and inflation problems in 1970-73 is
offered in B. B. Bhattacharya, "A New Strategy," Seminar, No. 172 (December 1973),
pp. 19-21.
'Interview of Khushwant Singh with the Prime Minister, Illustrated Weekly of
India, XCIV, August 19, 1973.
'Government of India, Draft Five Year Plan: 1975-79, 2 vols. (New Delhi: Planning
Commission, 1974). Data on the performance of the last two years of the Fourth Plan
may be found in Economic Survey, 1972-73 and 1973-74 (New Delhi: Government of
India, 1973, 1974).
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330 INDIA, ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT
ger signs of 1971-73 are not significantly recognized in the draft document.
It was criticized by B. S. Minhas, an economist and member of the Planning
Commission who resigned in late 1973 because of his objections, inter alia,
to savings estimates and domestic oil production targets which he judged
excessive. Although supported by some press opinion, Minhas' criticisms
had no measurable effect and in December 1973 the National Development
Council and the Parliament approved the Draft Fifth Plan almost at the same
time as the oil price increase penetrated the subcontinent.
The signal event was the price action by Iran, India's customary source
for approximately 65% of the 70% of crude oil which India imports. In
mid-December Iran auctioned its oil to panicky buyers from industrialized
nations for $16 a barrel. A non-participant in the Arab producers' oil em-
bargo, Iran had led other OPEC members to capitalize on the international
political situation and the relatively inelastic demand for oil. In what must
rank as one of the more callous events in international commerce, the OPEC
increases were made universally without regard to the relative wealth or
poverty of consumers. Iran's auction confronted India with the prospect of
having to pay considerably more for oil imports than the previous price of
$4 a barrel.
The Indian government made no public protest at the time or later about
the Iranian action. Indeed, in the United Nations and other forums Foreign
Minister Swaran Singh indicated that India accepted as valid the OPEC's
argument that price increases were justified because of the inflated prices of
western goods in world trade, the previously low price of petroleum pro-
duced in the Third World, and the exhaustible nature of the resource. India
endorsed revalorization of all raw materials from the LDCs. India's reaction
may be traced to conviction and in the specific Iranian case to political con-
siderations in the Indo-Iranian relationship-Iran's Islamic and CENTO
links with India's adversary Pakistan, major sales of American arms to Iran
and the possibility of these weapons passing through to Pakistan. Iran had
been troubled by Indian criticisms of military alliances and had viewed
India as a potential threat to Pakistan's security following its 1971 defeat.
Prior to the oil increase India and Iran had reassured one another about
these concerns.
Although the balance of forces disadvantaged India, New Delhi re-
sponded to Iran's price action by seeking new oil contracts, credits and other
links. Time constraints, established oil supply patterns and the prospects for
tradeoffs prevented India from seeking major, alternative sources of supply.
An Indo-Iranian pact announced in February 1974 set a crude price of $8.50
a barrel, arranged for a liberal, $500 million credit to India to purchase part
of its oil imports and guaranteed a supply for a Madras refinery which is to
be expanded with Iranian assistance.
India will pay for some of the oil with shipments of iron ore and alu-
mina from the expanded production which Iran is to help finance. Also, Iran
has agreed to finance $500 million worth of imports from India, notably
cement and sugar. The two states are to establish a joint shipping company.
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PAUL F. POWER 331
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332 INDIA, ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT
'Parts of the confidential study circulated in official circles in Washington and New
Delhi were first summarized in public by The New York Times on March 11, 1974. It
has been published, apparently in verbatim form, in Mainstream (New Delhi), April
6, 1974, as "World Bank's Confidential Report on India," pp. 4-37.
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PAUL F. POWER 333
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334 INDIA, ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT
who had been Defence Minister) the Agricultural Minister in a cabinet re-
alignment undertaken to deal more effectively with food and industrial
problems. The former Agriculture Minister, C. Subramaniam, received the
Finance portfolio,6 a move widely interpreted as a shift by the Prime Min-
ister away from the academic socialism which had prevailed in the govern-
ment's ideology since her election victory in February 1971. Confirmation
of the shift came last November when D. P. Dhar, the Planning Minister,
resigned from the Cabinet as the economic realities punctured the preten-
sions of the Fifth Plan which he had overseen and Mrs. Gandhi had en-
dorsed. Whatever the realigned Cabinet does or fails to do will influence
the future as well as the present. In that future the Indian Economic and
Scientific Research Council foresees a need for 120 million tons of food
grains in 1980-81, 150 million tons in 1990-91 and 180 million tons at the
turn of the century. A 1973 Club of Rome scenario, which assumes fertility
equilibrium in 50 years, no starvation, substantial increases on the order of
the Green Revolution of the 1960s in fertilizer and crop production, and the
maximization of acreage, indicates a need to import 500 million tons in 2025,
a non-sustainable requirements
Energy Searches: Part of India's response to its energy crisis has been to
intensify its preexisting search for new sources of domestic oil which pro-
vided 7.4 million tons or approximately one-third of its national consump-
tion before the emergency arose. A crash program began to explore for oil
in off-shore and continental shelf areas. Overcoming political reservations,
the government contracted with American firms last August to begin to ex-
plore the Bengal and Kutch basins. India will share in oil produced from
any discoveries while the foreign firms take the entire risks of exploration.
These contracts followed the pre-crisis start of Indian explorations in Bom-
bay High undertaken with a drilling rig made in Japan with American tech-
nology. Advised by an American firm, the Bombay High project established
its first well last April. This past January the Petroleum Ministry announced
that the field was viable and estimated an annual output of one million tons
in 1976 from the three struck wells. The Minister of Petroleum and Chemi-
cals, K. D. Malaviya, envisaged near self-sufficiency in oil in the next six to
seven years when he reported the news to Parliament, a view some observers
found euphoric.
Russia, which has aided the construction of Indian refineries and acted
as an oil advisor, has recently been brought into further efforts to increase
the production from proven wells in Assam and Gujarat. American and
Rumanian equipment will be involved. The Oil and Natural Gas Commission
is using Soviet equipment to explore gas and oil sites in Kashmir. Geological-
'As interim head of the new Congress following the party split in 1969, Subraman-
iam contributed the "Quit Poverty" ("Garibi Hatao") slogan which Prime Minister
Gandhi popularized until it became subject to recent criticism. His observations on In-
dian agriculture, poverty and development are found in C. Subramaniam, India of My
Dreams (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1972).
"M. Mesarovic, E. Pestel and M. Guernier, "A Computer Warning of Hunger To-
morrow," UNESCO Courier, July-August 1974, pp. 3-34, 68.
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PAUL F. POWER 335
ly difficult for oil searches, India has not been fully explored. Unless the
Bombay High or another off-shore find becomes productive on the British
or Norwegian model the South Asian state will continue to be critically de-
pendent on imported petroleum.
In coal India is nearly self-sufficient and a net exporter. There is a
shortage of metallurgical coal. Seventy percent of the energy in industry
comes from coal. Production reached a high of 80 million tons in 1969-70
but fell under 74 tons in 1972-73. Some observers blame the 1972 nationali-
zation of the mines for the decline and evident stagnation. The Fifth Plan
target of 135 million tons by 1979 seems unrealizable owing to the massive
investment required. Although Indian coal is high ash, a stepped-up export
strategy to help pay for oil imports may have merit; but again the need for
heavy investment and modernization is noticeable.8 Poland is aiding ex-
traction. Deriving oil from Indian coal would require enormous sums and
sophisticated technology, a problem shared with the West. Limited substitu-
tion of coal for oil will emerge in the short-run, but a non-selective strategy
would be regressive. About 40%o of the country's heavy-fuel generation
equipment could be changed over to coal, but unfortunately the coal may
not be available for the switch. Despite enormous reserves, India's coal
production has not kept up with rising demand.
India's coal and oil problems affect its power industry which has yet to
meet the target of any Plan. Power shortages have long hampered Indian
development. The Fifth Plan seeks to add generating capacity four times
greater than the increment added under the Fourth Plan. The prospects are
not bright. Based on past experience, there are potential difficulties in the
supply of adequate fossil fuels, sufficient water for hydro units, the avail-
ability of cement and steel for new units, and adequate funding by Indian
states which have financial jurisdiction over this vital industry. Moreover,
because electricity is a concurrent subject in Indian federalism, the coordi-
nation of the power industry is an onerous task. Thermal generating units
have received the greatest stress in Indian power development because, de-
spite the country's enormous hydro resources, the vast expense and long
gestation period required to harness them tilted priorities toward thermal
facilities. This pattern is likely to continue since the energy situation has
forced the Indian government to defer new investments in the coal and power
industries.
India's power industry is partly nuclear, a fact to which world attention
was drawn last May 18 when India exploded a nuclear device in Rajasthan.
The event stimulated discussions of its strategic and military meanings.9
There was a momentary improvement in public morale, and a serious rail
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336 INDIA, ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT
"India has large thorium deposits which some Indian commentators foresee as a
foreign exchange earner and resource for India's fast-breeder, thermal reactor program
now in a prototype stage. Yet the United States AEC estimates that no substantial use
for thorium is likely in the next 100 years.
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PAUL F. POWER 337
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338 INDIA, ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT
"Angus Hone, "Trade Balance and Balance of Payments in the Fifth Plan," Eco-
nomic and Political Weekly, IX (February 1974), pp. 291-300. India fears that LDC
exports would be first casualties in a world depression. Y. B. Chavan, "Correcting the
International Disequilibrium, " Eastern Economist, Feb. 7, 1975, pp. 273-4.
"See Michael Lipton and Peter Tulloch, "India and the Enlarged Community,"
International Affairs, L (January 1974), pp. 49-66.
"3Data and interpretations may be found in J. D. Sethi, "Indo-Soviet Cooperation
at a Turning Point," Point of View, IV (December 8, 1973), pp. 10-12; M. Sebastian,
"Does India Buy Dear From and Sell Cheap to the Soviet Union?" Economic and
Political Weekly, VIII (December 1973), pp. 2141-2150, concluding negatively; and
R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao, "Indo-Soviet Economic Relations," Asian Survey, XIII
(August 1973), pp. 793-801.
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PAUL F. POWER 339
the two states-i.e., Indian repayments of Soviet loans made at 2.5%o in-
terest with payment spread over ten to twelve years and three years grace
have more than offset India's favorable balance of trade with the Soviet
Union.
This phenomenon of negative net aid transfer is the reverse of the
situation which logically ought to obtain between a superpower and a less
developed country. It is a sensitive issue for the Gandhi regime abroad,
although not at home. The condition is partly explained by the fact that
India is using exports to the USSR to pay for Soviet military aid to India
amounting to about $1.4 billion during the 1956-73 period. Indian optimists
believe that the imbalanced condition is a short-run matter that will be
settled when Indian debts are rescheduled and bureaucratic and Soviet con-
sumption problems are resolved. India deals with the socialist bloc countries
in rupees, an attractive arrangement for a country with constant pressure
on its foreign exchange reserves. Indian officials consider that this feature
outweighs all other problems in Indo-socialist economic relations.
Although the turnover of Indian trade with the Eastern bloc has been
less than the governments involved anticipated, in the past decade the volume
has climbed at an average annual rate of 8.6%o in contrast to 1.1% for the
rest of the world. In 1973-74 the USSR was India's third highest trading
partner, with Indian exports of $378 million and Indian imports of $333
million. An Indo-Soviet commission, established in September 1972, over-
sees economic, scientific and technical cooperation and receives considerable
publicity as a vehicle for opening "new vistas." The joint commission is
intended to dovetail the countries' five year plans. One "new vista" is the
15-year Indo-Soviet pact signed at the conclusion of Leonid Brezhnev's
heroic-style visit to New Delhi in November 1973, on the eve of India's emer-
gency. The countries pledged to double trade in the next five years. Although
the USSR promised to almost double the 1973 sale of petroleum products
and to extend assistance to India's steel and coal industries, no valuable
crude oil was included and there were no new grants or credits. There were
reports in the fall of 1974 that the USSR had promised to provide 2 million
tons of food grains to India following Foreign Minister Swaran Singh's visits
to Moscow. As of mid-February 1975 the reports were unconfirmed. Even
if the unquestionably helpful food aid should materialize, the move should
not detract from the urgent need to solve the problems of unbalanced, normal
trade and negative net aid transfer that exist in Indo-Soviet relations.
On imports, the government has identified industries to receive favored
import treatment consistent with inflation and scarcity. India's heavy im-
ports in 1973 caused the government to tighten import licensing and related
controls to conserve foreign exchange and to press forward with import
substitution in the key areas of energy, metals and fertilizers. Based on past
policy, there are few consumer goods except food grains and pharmaceuti-
cals on the import list. Restraints on imports must be selectively and creative-
ly conducted to avoid supply dislocations, shutdowns and shortages.
Principally because of more and costlier imports, India had a $589
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340 INDIA, ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT
million trade gap for the year ending March 31, 1974, a reve
towards smaller deficits and following a slightly unfavorable balance the
year before which resulted from the radical decline in net transfers of
foreign aid. There was an export surge last fall but the terms of trade de-
teriorated. The 1974-75 trade gap is expected to be a huge $1.7 billion, re-
flecting the escalated oil bill and emergency food purchases. An impressive
drive to earn foreign exchange and to limit non-essential imports has been
undertaken and must continue if India is to avoid floundering. The cost of
expensive oil imports alone is likely to consume between 50 to 80% of
India's export earnings over the period of the Fifth Five Year Plan, an in-
crease from 20% for the last year of the Fourth Plan. Reacting to this dis-
tinct possibility, the Indian government began in 1974 to utilize existing
credits and search for new credits.
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PAUL F. POWER 341
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342 INDIA, ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT
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PAUL F. POWER 343
Conclusion
India's gross assistance needs for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1975
have received substantial attention from the Indian government and to a
lesser and varying extent from external actors, especially the World Bank
Group. Traditional, national friends have been less than effusive in their re-
sponses. In absolute and relative terms the capitalist democratic nations have
been more forthcoming than the communist states. India has prudently
avoided commercial loans. The magnitude of the gross assistance needs are
about $2.5 billion to cover an immense trade deficit of about $1.7 billion
and debt service of about $730 million. All borrowings and debt reschedul-
ing as of mid-February 1975 suggest that they will come close to meeting
total needs. The sources and amounts are the Consortium (including IDA)-
$1.3 billion; IMF (regular) -$280 million; IMF (oil facility) -$240 million;
oil exporters-$250 million; and Eastern Europe-$300 million gross.20
There will be a gap of about $130 million. This amount can be met from
India's none-too-substantial foreign exchange reserves which were $1 bil-
lion as of February 1, 1975. Importantly, India's gross assistance needs for
1975-76 are likely to be about the same as for 1974-75. Owing chiefly to the
Consortium and the IMF, including its enhanced oil facility, the needs will
probably be nearly met once again.
As of the winter of 1974-75, the Indian regime may be said to have
coped with the energy emergency in its external and domestic aspects without
"The net transfer of foreign aid from all sources for 1974-75 may be $1.2 billion
compared with about $605 million in 1973-74, a jump from the nadir of aid to India in
1972-73 of $214 million which marked the end of the slide from the peak of $1.3 billion
in 1965-66. For 1974-75 the UN Emergency Fund provided India with a $32 million
grant to import fertilizer and the EEC made a $100 million grant to India for food
purposes.
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344 INDIA, ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT
losing its diplomatic balance and its control over public order and the
maintenance of democratic processes. The Congress government remains
under heavy pressure from domestic critics to achieve higher levels of creativ-
ity, discipline, efficiency and probity in all organs of the regime. Although
preparations for the next General Election may produce a leftist idiom,
Prime Minister Gandhi's government is apt to continue the decentralist,
flexible tack toward the private sector adopted in early 1974 and to dilute
doctrinaire socialism. Simultaneously, the Congress government is likely to
consolidate and perhaps increase those steps taken in 1974 to mobilize ad-
ditional revenue, combat inflation and corruption and manage more effec-
tively and vigorously the public sector and foreign trade activities. Fifth
Plan ambitions are being adjusted to near-term efforts which will be suc-
cessful if they can maintain the economy's 3.5% long-term growth rate.
Import reduction and energy conservation measures are essential in the
short-run to offset the impact of inflation and shortages. A productive ap-
proach would be to expend additional resources to benefit agriculture and
the critical fertilizer industry, and to expend less on the expensive, sluggish
steel industry and the outsize military.21
The Indian economy has positive features: a private sector with un-
tapped investment capacity; considerable improvements in the utilization of
non-project aid; an impressive base for capital goods; a growing pattern of
import substitution; some liberalization of controls that needs to be ex-
panded and extended to foreign investors who tend to shun India;22 and
increasing numbers of professional farmers, managers, scientists and tech-
nicians.
Demonstrated by the nuclear explosion, India has achieved scientific
feats that provide an ethos essential for long-run development. If the nuclear
program becomes military, India's borrowing capacity will be jeopardized.
A pressing issue is whether India's scientific technology is capable of cor-
recting in the near term conditions whereby half of the energy consumed is
derived from cow dung, firewood and vegetable waste, the per capita yearly
income is $110, and 40% of the people live below the poverty line ($65
annual income). Removal of poverty is one of the two overarching goals of
India's Plans. Tragically, the 1974 emergency set back the growth and dis-
tributive activities that work towards this objective.
The attainment of economic self-reliance is the second major goal of
recent Plans. Caused or supported by cultural, intellectual and physical fac-
tors, but also by agricultural and industrial progress, self-reliance has been
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PAUL F. POWER 345
"3Paul F. Power, "On Ideologies in Indian Foreign Policy," The Indian Political
Science Review, VIII (January 1974), p. 6.
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