A World Driven By Its Energy Needs

The phase between the 18th July nuclear deal and the March visit of Mr Bush to India was marked with heated discussions and anticipations about the outcome of the diversion that Indian foreign policy was subjected to. When the air of confusion and the fear of India becoming another one of US allies was cleared by Dr Manmohan Singh's suo motu statement in parliament, everyone felt genuinely convinced about the need of fuel for Tarapur nuclear power plants. What followed was a debate on the potential of Nuclear Energy in fulfilling the ever-growing energy demand and the costs at which it was coming.

Nuclear Energy For India

Nuclear power plants have a much higher establishment cost than their petroleum counterparts. Accepted. They take a much longer time to become operational. True. Another fact states that due to financial constarints, India can set up only that many nuclear power plants by 2020 which will feed not more than 25% of its total power needs. Well, this definitely is crucial given that the present share of nuclear power in India is a meagre 2.8% as against 78% of france and 19.9% of US. Its important for India to reduce its dependence on oil and gas since just a quarter of its consumption is produced in the country and it's estimated that the figure of import will change to 80% of total consumtion soon. Manmohan government was right in finalising the nuclear deal on its conditions though it's bound to cost shifts in foreign policy owing to US pressure. India needs to develop at a faster rate and power has to play a crucial role in this development. At times, one needs to think of its needs.

The Case of Iran
While Indo-US deal was capturing news headlines, there was another issue which popped up intermittently- the Iran crisis. All the games being played by US and its allies in the backdrop of Iran's Nuclear Programme, are just to create a bugger crisis. A crisis of the scale of Iraq. US is the largest consumer of petroleum products in the world. Energy security has been at the core of US foreig policy, for years. With all oil pockets of middle-east in its pocket, it has all its eyes set on Iran which is crucial with its vast reserves of natural gas. This crisis was initiated with just one designed end- getting control over Iran's petroleum reserves. All the other nations of middle-east which do not face the US threat, had opted for friendly relations with US. They were right doing so and so is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in not yielding to US pressure and letting the world see the real face of US policy of neo-imperialism.

The Coloured Revolutions
The erstwhile Soviet Union is another region wealthy of hydrocrabon reserves. So, naturally it's another playground for US. The United States has been pouring a great volume of resources in this region to sponsor revolution to install puppet governments. Its money has bore fruits, and in a number of countries of this region, the revolutions have occurred. These revolutions are better known as coloured revolutions.

The European nations have been involved in arrangements with Russia which has resulted in a network of gas and oil pipelines running from Russia to various European countries. There are similar negotiations in the pipeline between Japan, China and Russia.

In the wake of human life getting increasingly dependent on modern gadgets, energy requirements have taken a vital place in the basic requiremnets' list. With the rise of Asian countries, which consist of two most populous countries of the world, energy needs of the world are bound to register unprecedented surge. What we can imagine under these circumstances, are more players in the present US's playgrounds and world whose political moves are increasingly driven by the energy factor.