India’s Resource Security

Book excerpt: With increasing population, economic growth, rising demand, and receding resources, the inevitable question of who owns, manages, and utilizes resources has acquired paramount importance. With nations undertaking significant efforts to secure and access natural resources, a holistic resource security framework is critical and essential for a secure and sustainable future. India’s Resource Security: Trade, Geopolitics, and Efficiency Dimensions covers a wide range of issues within the domain of resource security. It attempts to make the readers understand the resource concerns from three perspectives: trade, geopolitics, and efficiency. The book highlights the major aspects that resource security encompasses: sustainable resource development and extraction, production and use, trade and investments, geopolitical considerations, and intergovernmental and multilateral cooperation. It also discusses resource efficiency intensifying globally, the potential scope for responsible resource development at the extraction and production levels, enhanced efficiency in resource use, and recycling and reuse at the end-use level to strengthen the framework for achieving resource security. The book also deals with multilateral approaches, various forms of cooperation—including the possible formation of a resource bank—focused resource-based engagement in South Asia, and the means to enhance bilateral relations with India’s relevant allies and partners.