Energy-hungry India is set to put its economic muscle to work, as it strives to make inroads into Central Asia

Energy-hungry India is set to put its economic muscle to work, as it strives to make inroads into Central Asia. A recent India-Central Asia Conference in Tashkent, along with visits throughout the region by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Defense Minister George Fernandes and Foreign Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, indicate that India’s foreign policy focus is shifting increasingly beyond its traditional China-Pakistan focus. India’s energy needs are driving the country’s interest in Central Asia. With a population of over 1 billion and a booming economy, India is ranked as the world’s sixth largest energy consumer. To keep its economy growing at an average annual rate of 7-8 percent, Indian Planning Commission Chairman K. C. Pant recently told the Indo-Asian News Service, the country will need to increase its energy consumption by roughly 5 percent each year. For a country that imports nearly five times the amount of electricity it exports, such an increase represents a tall order. It is one that India, mindful of its historic Silk Route ties with Central Asia, hopes the largely untapped energy potential of the region will fulfill. Indian oil company ONGC Videsh Ltd. already has a 15 percent holding in Kazakhstan’s Alibekmola oil fields and a 10 percent holding in the country’s Kurmangazi fields. According to a January 2003 report by John Hopkins University’s Central Asian-Caucasus Institute, it would like to put down a minimum 20 percent stake in Uzbekistan’s oil and gas fields as well. Water-rich Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have also lined up to offer hydropower projects to India. For now, though, mired in an ongoing debate over transportation routes, ambitious energy export plans have yet to deliver. Eager to skirt arch-rival Pakistan, India has supported a controversial 890-mile, $2-billion "energy highway" that would run from Russia via Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, and on to Kashmir through the India-China Line of Control.