Energy security is one of the primary economic, political as well as development agenda for all the counties. While the issue is mostly discussed in terms of availability, accessibility, affordability, acceptability and applicability (of energy technology)(Cherp and Jewell, 2014, Yao and Chang, 2014), the implications vary significantly with the change in the country and the stakeholders. While geopolitics is one of the major discourses within which energy availability and affordability are discussed from the macro-perspective of a country, microeconomic studies become equally relevant to understand the same from the perspective of the dwellers in the country. In fact, given the seventh Sustainable Development Goal of access to ‘affordable and clean energy’ (UNDP, 2015), it is important to understand energy security from a micro perspective for developing countries like India with 1.3 billion people and counting faces with the daunting task of providing access to energy in the most basic form (fuels required for cooking and lighting) to its people.India still houses around 65% of households using firewood and chips as primary source of energy for cooking, while 100% household electrification still remains unachieved.Different schemes have been launched from time to time to increase the penetration of LPG (like Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitrak 2009, Pradhan Mantri UjjwalaYojana 2016) as a cleaner cooking fuel as compared to kerosene and fuel-wood and electricity as primary source of lighting (Deen Dyal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA)). While policies towards LPG penetration emphasized on increase in the supply density and subsidy; policies towards electricity emphasized on greater connectivity and providing initial infrastructure at a lower cost. So basically these policies are aiming at increasing ‘availability’ and ‘affordability’ of LPG and electricity. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses to understand the role of ‘availability’ and ‘affordability’ in determining the use of these two fuels in various states in India. The question that the paper addresses is what leads to increased use of electricity as lighting fuel and LPG as cooking fuel in India Whether it’s the greater availability manifested in increased supply conditions or affordability, manifested in enhanced demand conditions
展开▼
