The Debt-Energy Nexus A Case Study of India C Rammanohar Reddy Antonette D'Sa Amulya K N Reddy This study attempts to unravel the energy-debt nexus by linking India's energy imports to the growth of its external debt. The intention is to bring out, firstly, the extent to which India's debt problem could have been avoided with a different strategy of energy use in the 80s and, secondly what changes in energy consumption are needed now to prevent a further build up of debt The study considers the effect on India's imports of four important shifts in a strategy that would have reduced oil consumption and could have been implemented between 1977-78 and 1989-90: (i) a shift in long-haul freight movement from road to rail, (ii) a shift from kerosene to liquefied petroleum gas for cooking, (iii) the electrification of unelectrified households, and (iv) the replacement of diesel irrigation pumpsets with electric pumpsets.
