Global Leadership and Problem Solving-Energy in India

Within the next few decades, India, which today has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita per year of only about $2,000, will be not only the most populous nation in the world, but also potentially one of the most perilously energy-deficient nations in the world. While India's roughly 1.4 billion people now use more than 800 million tons of oil each year, its government has articulated several far-reaching plans to shift more into such renewable energy sources as hydro, wind, solar, and bio-power. But there are enormous obstacles to India's various plans for achieving energy security, and each energy security plan will affect economic conditions and environmental protection in ways that are far from entirely easy to predict. This course equips students to describe, analyze, and assess multiple perspectives and competing plans related to energy in India. With exclusive access to reflections on the challenge by selected top experts and leaders, each student does a final I-MPA capstone paper delineating and defending one actionable, evidence-based idea for achieving energy security in India in a way that minimizes adverse economic and environmental impacts.