CEA India Speech

On Wednesday, India's Chief Economic Analyst [Arvind Subramanian] gave a talk to India's Energy and Resource Institute [TERI] on the subject of renewables versus fossil fuels. 1

Mr Subramnian's tenure as CEA expires in October and, according to the Indian press, he is hotly tipped to become the new Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog.

"...the corridors of power are abuzz with the prospect of chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian becoming vice-chairman of NITI-Aayog." 2

"... whispers have been heard in New Delhi’s corridors of power over the last few weeks. These suspicions have peaked since the sudden exit of NITI Aayog vice chairman Shri Panagariya. Many believe that the government, with just two more years to go, wants to experiment with new ideas from fresh economists." 3

His speech revolved around 10 propositions...

Proposition 10: Rapid, organic growth in energy demand and technological progress in cleaning coal—for which there must be a collective international effort--will help minimize the tensions between coal and renewables.

Elaborating on the proposition: " India is committed to curbing climate change and to promoting renewables, making coal clean is vital to the country’s development. However, this cannot be done by India, or anyone else, alone. Technologies that are already available, such as carbon capture and storage, have proved prohibitively expensive. To discover truly effective techniques— i.e. to clean and green coal—the world collectively needs to embark on a programme akin to the Manhattan project that produced the first nuclear bomb. This would require investment from both public and private sectors, in advanced and developing nations, as well as a range of policy instruments." 4

Tick Tck ?



1 Video    (11:10 and 34:50 mins)
2 http://www.newindianexpress.com/nat...e-planning-shakeup-of-niti-aayog-1629179.html
3 http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...mic-advisor/story-LO7cBXH7bATSw9ZRiW2eXP.html
4 Transcript http://www.teriin.org/files/coal_renewables_lecture_aug2017.pdf