India, at 1.17 billion people is the second most populated country in the world and is home to 17% of the world population. Its primary energy consumption (in 2007) was 18.65EJ, 3.75% of the entire world. It amounts to 15.9BJ/person-year, China’s of 56.2BJ/person-year and with India’s strong GDP growth of about 9% and a relatively high population growth of 1.55% (compared with 0.65% for China, 0.97% for the US., 0.11% for the European Union and 1.17% for the world). It is obvious that significant growth is expected as the people of India increase in number and strive to improve their living standard.
This paper summarises the most recently available energy and emissions data, outlines the structure of the SI, fills some information gaps and offers brief comments for some sustainable paths for the future. The paper highlights the energy shortage in India due to low usage of nuclear power generation, Green House Gas emissions, fuel switching and new technologies, renewable energy and energy economics and efficiency as current energy related developments in India. It also states the structure of SI and comments on existing literature on energy usage in India. Key issues in this regard are:

fossil fuels, renewables and energy efficiency;
household energy and biomass; and
energy and CO2 emissions

To address the energy crisis and ensure a sustainable path to energy development, the paper makes the following recommendations:

conservation or sustainable use of energy resources including less polluting transportation, efficient buildings and household energy usage and prevention of energy efficiency rebound;

advanced and new renewable technologies should be adapted, developed and implemented in coal mining, transportation and power generation;

adoption of efficient, extensive and smart electricity distribution grid;

designing and implementing highly sustainable large energy projects; and

inclusion of the people at all stages of the project.