Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

"Energy security a national priority", says PM

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh chaired the first meeting of the newly created Energy Coordination Committee. Senior members of the Union Council of Ministers dealing with energy sector, senior officials and economic policy advisors participated in the 2-hour meeting here today.

In his opening remarks the Prime Minister said that in the light of the continuing rise of international oil prices India must diversify its energy supplies, manage energy resources more economically and pursue rational pricing policies. "We have to ensure that we build up adequate energy security to insulate the economy from any future shock." The PM said.

Emphasising the importance of tapping all sources of energy, including petroleum, natural gas, coal, biomass, solar, hydro and nuclear, the Prime Minister advised ministries to ensure that adequate investments are made keeping in mind the expected growth in demand arising out of higher rate of economic growth and the modernization, urbanization and commercialization of economic activity.

The Prime Minister said that India must invest in nuclear energy and the recent steps he has taken to end India's global isolation in this regard should help the country increase the share of nuclear energy in the overall energy mix of the economy. Dr Anil Kakodkar, Secretary Department of Atomic Energy, also emphasized the need for India to import uranium and invest in uranium mining to meet the requirements of nuclear power generation. He drew attention to the fact that the price of domestically mined uranium is 4 to 5 times that of imported uranium. Several participants complimented the Prime Minister for successfully concluding a deal with the United States that would enable India to import uranium for nuclear power projects.

The ECC discussed a strategy paper on the energy sector prepared by the Planning Commission and a paper on coal and gas availability for power generation prepared by the Cabinet Secretariat. The Prime Minister instructed the Cabinet Secretary to resolve all pending inter-ministerial issues to enable improvement in availability of gas and coal for power generation. He instructed the ministries of power, coal, petroleum and natural gas to ensure close monitoring of all on-going projects to ensure that energy supply from existing investments is increased to bridge the gap between demand and supply.