Vikram S Mehta
The writer is the chairman of Brookings India and senior fellow, Brookings Institution.
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More From Vikram S Mehta
Naysayers are wrong, India does have success stories
Vikram S Mehta writes: Too many people believe that India cannot fulfil the promise of its founding fathers. There are stories and examples that show it is possible
Tue, Aug 02, 2022
After Ukraine, the new energy disorder
Vikram Singh Mehta writes: Ukraine war has disrupted old energy order. We cannot afford to continue with our existing siloed approach
Mon, Jul 04, 2022
The Ukraine conflict has raked up old dilemmas
Vikram S Mehta writes: Issues related to energy security, climate change mitigation have been brought to the forefront.
Mon, Jun 06, 2022
Could S Jaishankar don the Kissingerian mantle?
Vikram Singh Mehta writes: If there were an India-led peacemaking initiative, Jaishankar might be the best qualified to crack the Ukrainian diplomatic impasse
Tue, May 31, 2022
Pushing Putin into a corner will backfire
The effort now should be to create avenues for a face-saving back down. India has the credibility and international clout to help
Mon, Apr 04, 2022
How to handle impact of Ukrainian crisis on India’s energy sector
To deal with energy volatility, India must build reserves, revive conversations on pipeline with Iran, Turkmenistan
Mon, Mar 07, 2022
Preparing for a green energy shift in 2022
The ‘irresistible force’ for clean energy has met the ‘immovable object’ of an embedded fossil fuel energy system. How can policies reconcile this paradox?
Mon, Jan 03, 2022
Wanted: New leaders to tackle climate change challenge
🔴 Vikram S Mehta writes: COP27 should be led by a collective of experts, who can accelerate the implementation of the action plan towards net zero.
Tue, Dec 07, 2021
Why India needs a Ministry of Energy
Vikram S Mehta writes: It would not alter the existing roles and responsibilities of the various ministries that oversee petroleum, coal, renewables and power, but would identify and handle all of the issues that currently fall between the cracks created by the existing structure.
Tue, Nov 02, 2021
A green response to natural gas price shock
Vikram S Mehta writes: The price surge must be leveraged to improve energy efficiency, intensify demand conservation and intervene to prevent the switch to coal, among other measures.
Tue, Oct 05, 2021
National monetisation pipeline betrays narrow outlook
Vikram S Mehta writes: Private-public investment structures make sense, but they must be modelled to also generate social value. In today’s world, there are no shortcuts to sustainable development.
Tue, Sep 07, 2021
The agenda for Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri
Vikram S Mehta writes: Hardeep Singh Puri should not, in the current context, see his responsibility through the siloed prism of oil and natural gas. He should broaden the aperture and become the progenitor of the energy transition.
Mon, Aug 02, 2021
There is still hope for a more compassionate, united world
Vikram S Mehta writes: In spite of vaccine nationalism and dithering over environmental issues, there is still hope that binding commonalities of humanity – trust, compassion, friendship, conversation – can usher change.
Mon, Jul 05, 2021
In the next big disruption post Covid, the world must be better prepared to act together
No single entity, whether government, corporate or civic society, has the tools to manage the fallout
Mon, Jun 07, 2021
India’s road to clean energy goes via natural gas
Rather than focus only on the endgame of decarbonisation, India must first ‘green’ its fossil fuel energy basket by increasing the share of natural gas
Mon, May 03, 2021
India’s road to clean energy goes via natural gas
Rather than focus only on the endgame of decarbonisation, India must first ‘green’ its fossil fuel energy basket by increasing the share of natural gas
Sun, May 02, 2021
GV Ramakrishna: A steward of petroleum
The former petroleum secretary, who passed away two weeks ago, placed oil and gas exploration in India on a sure footing.
Mon, Apr 05, 2021
Road to decarbonisation: Govts must remove obstacles of poorly designed planning systems
Decarbonisation has become a buzzword. To ensure it does not remain just that but translates into effective action on the ground, policy makers will have to build structures that reflect the woven, multidimensional, interdependent and interconnected nature of the energy ecosystem.
Mon, Mar 01, 2021
Meenakshi Ahamed’s book shows why Indo-US ties have progressed despite personal inclinations of those in office
The pace of the further development of relations will depend crucially on the quality, knowledge and influence of the people that President Biden appoints to his India desk.
Mon, Feb 08, 2021
Post Covid development model will need more public-private partnerships, different business leadership
If there is one straw that COVID has offered, it is the tangible evidence that no one entity or group — the state, markets, businesses, entrepreneurs, scientists — can tackle existing and emergent economic and social problems on their own. They have to work together to resolve them.
Mon, Jan 04, 2021
A new map for the end of Oil Age: Technology is answer to energy transition
How should India, an economy dependent on fossil fuels, navigate future energy transitions? A new book has some pointers
Mon, Dec 07, 2020
Post-Covid, lack of social security has made many migrants consider employment opportunities closer home
A stark manifestation of the two-track development of our socio-economic polity is the ubiquitous spread of digital technology.
Mon, Nov 02, 2020
Covid could make govts look at inherited structural problems through a different prism
This pressure point could be our youthful population who must realise increasingly that their future hinges on the effectiveness of the government’s policy response to the uncertain and evolving pressures of changing economic and industrial structures, job profiles and social dynamics.
Mon, Oct 05, 2020
Post-COVID ‘new normal’ might be marked by greater economic, social and political divisions
It could see intensification of populism, further erosion of guardrails of basic human rights
Mon, Sep 07, 2020
Pandemic has driven home need for collaborations in public policy between experts and administrators
A parallel council with a similarly blended mix should be set up with individual states to take into account local factors, and in the spirit of cooperative federalism.
Mon, Aug 03, 2020