India is the world’s largest economy and world’s 4th largest consumer of energy with 1.4 billion populations. In 2014, the government of India came up with a new policy concerning energy that aimed to achieve “energy independence” by the year 2030. When a state can produce enough energy in terms of fuel and electricity to meet its demands, it is considered to have attained energy independence. The new policy objective is to conduct large-scale renewable energy auctions, promote access to oil and gas market for foreign investors and privatization of coal mining. Currently, India imports 80% of its total crude oil, 18% of its total gas and 23% of its total coal, which is expected to be double by 2040. International Energy Agency (IEA) has termed India’s plan to become energy independent by 2030 as a “very ambitious” and an “idealistic challenge”.

Although, in the year 2020, in partnership with NITI Aayog, IEA released an in-depth review of India’s energy policy. The report highlights the achievements of India’s energy policies and provides recommendations to support the government’s goals of promoting well-functioning energy markets and boosting the deployment of renewables.

India has ranked 9th  in climate change performance index in 2019 and its composite score under sustainable development goals index have improved from 57 to 61.  This is a big achievement by India but with the new policy it has a long way to go

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