Udisha Saklani

The global landscape of international development is undergoing a rapid transition, with emerging actors playing a significant role in meeting the developmental needs of developing-country partners. Over the past six decades, India has emerged as a major donor and development partner, directing a significant share of its assistance and investments to countries in South Asia. This paper provides an overview of Indiaʼs development cooperation with Bhutan, the largest and one of the oldest beneficiaries of Indian assistance, with special attention to the hydropower sector. In recent years, the scale of Indiaʼs disbursement and development cooperation activities in Bhutan has come under scrutiny. In this paper, we document the official views, and those of the international organisations and the media in India and Bhutan, on the possible repercussions of these activities in the near, medium and long term and how the different concerns are being addressed. We argue that in future India wi...

India's water management has been on an unsustainable path for centuries. As India's population has increased, so have its water requirements. Increases in population, in the absence of serious and sustained efforts to improve water use efficiencies, have become a major driver of water requirements in the country. India is facing another major problem: As the water requirements of the domestic and industrial sectors go up, the quantities of wastewater generated increase as well. Population growth, in the absence of proper domestic and industrial wastewater treatment, has created a serious water quality problem. The latest series of interstate river conflicts has triggered numerous protests, violence, and property destruction in many Indian states over existing water allocation decisions. One of the most important challenges in confronting interstate river conflicts is the absence of permanent and efficient dispute resolution mechanisms. Nowhere is demand management more essential than in water allocation to the different states on all the interstate rivers.

India's increasing growth in GDP, which rose from 3.7% annually in 1961–7.9% annually in 2015, has resulted in a rising demand for energy that almost doubled between 2000 and 2015. This trend is expected to continue due to urbanization, industrialization, and expansion of domestic manufacturing, encouraged by the Make in India initiative. A framework that considers a long-term road map for energy security is necessary to transform India from a country of chronic power shortages to one with reliable sources of energy. Elements of this framework include a sustainable energy mix, stronger reliance on green energy sources like hydro, solar and wind power, less dependency on coal, and strengthened cooperation on energy trade with neighbouring countries in South Asia. This paper discusses the long-term transboundary energy collaboration between India and Bhutan and the benefits for India in terms of diversification of energy sources and overall energy security. By assessing reciprocal benefits for India, we attempt to substantiate our claim that the India-Bhutan energy collaboration is strongly based on the principle of mutual benefits that extend to overall security. Cooperation between India and Bhutan is unique rather than a model in the region mainly due to mistrust and geopolitics.