Book Review – India & China: STRATEGIC ENERGY MANAGEMENT & SECURITY

This book represents another feather in the cap of Manas Publications in their quest to tell the world that India can win the battle not only by bullet but also by pen. In the true patriotic flavour the book is dedicated to "Mother India" and then to the parents of the writer brothers. This book examines the "energy question" issues as pertaining to India & China in a holistic way and addresses a wide range of readers to incl planners, policy makers, administrators, investors and more importantly the most promising section of the Indian society, the young graduates. This book has been divided into ten chapters for the ease of understanding and easy comprehension, at the end ten appendices have been provided for ready reference. China & India, which are the focus of this book, are resources rich and high consumption countries but these two countries are exclusively dependent  on single domestic resource of coal for production of electricity? Is energy crisis the true crisis  of  India & China or is it something else? Does the prediction of China becoming the largest economy with India rising to the third or fourth place in the global economy in the near future necessitates a close and increased cooperation between both the countries in the field of energy management? Can we afford to be a non thinker of "energy" or choose to be blank to a question posed to you? Does 20% of the world's population consume 80% of the world's resources while India with 16% of the global population uses only 3% of world's resources? But who is responsible for this imbalance and who are we going to complain to? The Sikdar brothers have written in engaging style that makes his work accessible to scholars and lay persons  like. The academic intellect of the authors is clearly evident due the bureaucratic background and the services of the writer brothers in the administrative field. DSSC, Wellington (India) appropriately finds a mention in the acknowledgement section.

The book gives an insight into the background of the energy problem in Asia and the world. The more eco friendly and renewable sources of energy such as the atomic energy, protein powered solar cells, hydrogen fuel cell ,nano techonology ,compressed energy storage , flywheel energy storage ,bio fuels, wind energy and other non conventional sources in the Indian context are also discussed in a comprehensive manner. The" energy centric" study of China is another important highlight of the book. The authors have made an endeavour to demonstrate the vulnerability of the dragon in this regard with the help of bar diagrams, charts, pie charts, pictographs and the security related aspects. Three chapters have been dedicated to India and issues such as the mgt of the resources and strategic energy mgt have been dwelled upon.

With articles that appeared in various journals, edited works and websites but mostly difficult to obtain in a concise manner, this volume makes an important segment  of Sikdar's work available. The recommendations made by the Sikdar brothers as part of Section X are imperative for India to achieve accelerated, sustainable and peaceful economic development. However the recommendations fail to address the policy makers to understand the linkages between not only India's energy insecurity and the much broader range of China's important geo political , energy, and environmental interests but also the linkages between Asia's energy insecurity. A comparison with the contemporary works on the sub reveals that the impact of the present world order on the "Energy Security" related issues is amiss.

The most fascinating  and thought provoking part of the book is the "Energy Teasers" placed at the end of the book as appendices. These are a miny encyclopaedia containing all possible statistics on energy related issues, abbreviations, acronyms, conversion factors, annotated guide to web resources etc appendix  pertains to the frequently asked questions (FAQ) on energy however the answers are missing. Appendix H provides a list of useful Web resources relating to energy.

The book is well presented in a hardbound format and makes fluent reading. It presents interesting reading on a subject which is not well known in India as well as abroad. It is written from an academic's perspective; as such, some observations may not sit well with the military readers. It is often said that China outweighs and supersedes India in the field of energy management but as one turns the pages of the book it is clearly evident that India too supersedes China in many other fields like IT,BPO,KPO,Banking etc. It is priced at Rs 995/-, which is reasonable keeping the current inflationary trends into consideration. The book should definitely figure in libraries of institutions as part of contemporary "Elephant Dragon " studies.