On June 15 at the 16th edition of the Mindmine Summit, a session titled The New Energy Map: Oil, Atom or Sun? explored how India is balancing energy security, economic growth and climate commitments, as the global energy transition is increasingly becoming a question not of replacement, but of coexistence between conventional and emerging sources of power.
The discussion brought together Dr. Praveer Sinha, CEO and Managing Director of The Tata Power Company; Mansi Madan Tripathy, Chairperson of Shell Group of Companies in India and Senior Vice President – Shell Lubricants, Asia Pacific; and Amitabh Kant, former G20 Sherpa to the Government of India, in conversation with Sudipto Dey, Editor – Sustainability & Regulatory Affairs at Outlook Business.
Dey asked Kant how the conflict in West Asia has reshaped India’s energy outlook, building on Kant’s argument that India’s energy independence has become a new sovereignty issue.
Kant noted that India imports nearly $180 billion worth of fossil fuels and warned that geopolitical disruptions carry significant economic consequences.
With war in West Asia and any closure of the Strait of Hormuz, prices shoot up from around $60 a barrel to about $110 a barrel,” he said, adding that such hikes have serious implications for India’s macroeconomic stability.
“It has implications on the strength of your currency and has huge long term implications on your growth prospects, and therefore, energy independence is key to India’s long term growth and prosperity,” he said.Kant argued that India has already made substantial progress in clean energy but must move faster.
“In my view, India has already achieved almost 286 gigawatts of clean energy. India now needs to accelerate the pace.”
Referring to India’s target of reaching 500 gigawatts by 2030, he said the ambition should go beyond climate commitments. The target was set in the context of meeting climate goals, but we need to enhance this target in a very big way, he said.
He also linked energy independence directly to India’s technological ambitions.
“If you are not able to have energy, and you are not energy independent, you will not be able to drive artificial intelligence,” he said, adding that India has already invested heavily in AI.
India has the capacity to produce large scale renewable energy, he said, adding that the country is climatically blessed. “India should push for a post industrial society, push for clean energy,” he declared.
India’s ambition to build more and more renewable needs to be much higher than 500gigawatts, he said, adding that in the context of the current geopolitics, India must become the champion of clean energy. “If India's ambition is to grow at 9-10 per cent per annum over a three decade period, only three countries have been able to do it, namely Japan, China and South Korea, all 108 countries are caught in the middle income strap. This growth can only come from being energy independent, no other way.”
If India wants to be a developed country, it cannot be energy dependent on the Strait of Hormuz, he said.
Sinha stated that India has performed relatively well in meeting its energy requirements through disruptions ranging from Covid to the Russia–Ukraine war. India had sufficient gas and oil, he said, while also having coal and expanding renewable power capacity.
“During daytime, we have huge excess capacity and the price of power goes down to ₹1 or nearly zero, that is the benefit that we have.”
However, he argued that the next challenge is making the system more sustainable and reliable round the clock. We need to make it more sustainable in terms of 24x7 supply, he said. “It is infirm power, and we have to figure out a way to make it firm.”
According to him, battery storage is one of the key solutions to bridge that gap. Looking at future planning, Sinha said one of the most important priorities should be speed of execution. “There is one India that works in Delhi, but then there is the Bharat that we see in the states. That is the problem.” He argued that every state must begin thinking with a national perspective and take ownership of the transition.
“The next 15 years is a great time for India to transition into clean energy, cheap and affordable energy and make it more energy secure,” he concluded.
Dey asked Tripathy to reflect on lessons from performance in a crisis, from a company perspective, a leadership perspective and in the context of the past 100 days of the Iran conflict.
Tripathy began by suggesting that the session’s name, ‘Oil, Atom or Sun?’ could be reframed. It should be Oil, Atom and Sun, she said, adding that the conversation should go even further to include molecules, electrons, atoms and metals.
Tripathy said she believes crises often create opportunities and pointed to recent developments in India’s energy sector as an example. “I honestly believe that any crisis is a huge opportunity,” she said.
Referring to the past 100 days, she said discussions around India’s strategic reserves have accelerated significantly and would likely not have moved at the same pace without recent geopolitical disruptions. India has also rapidly diversified its import base, moving from sourcing energy from around 21 countries to more than 42.
She argued that the shift has pushed long-pending reforms forward.
From renewable gas and ethanol blending to pricing reforms and upstream investments, she said, “the pace part has been really, really accelerated.”
Drawing from Shell’s lubricants business, Tripathy explained how the crisis has changed industrial processes and innovation cycles. She noted that developing a new formulation would typically take six to nine months, but the company is now completing the process in as little as two weeks.
“Part of it is AI,” she said, explaining that simulations that once required physical testing are increasingly being conducted digitally, significantly reducing timelines.
She added that this acceleration has also been driven by greater openness across the ecosystem. Businesses are becoming more willing to experiment and adapt. Practices such as combining different base oils and altering traditional formulations, once considered unacceptable, are now being explored to maintain supply and meet demand.
“The crisis has forced us to ask: if this is our demand and this is the supply, what are the hundred things we can do to bridge the two?”
According to her, that shift in mindset has strengthened flexibility, resilience and agility across sectors.
“I think that flexibility, resilience and agility wouldn’t have come if not for crisis.”
