India’s Decarbonization Ambitions: The Challenges of Fundamentals to Political Economy

On Wednesday, February 26, the Asia Policy Program and LBJ professors Dr. Varun Rai and Dr. Joshua Busby hosted Dr. Rahul Tongia for a talk on “India’s Decarbonization Ambitions: The Challenges of Fundamentals to Political Economy” .

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Rahul Tongia is a Senior Fellow with CSEP in New Delhi, a not-for-profit Think Tank originally established as Brookings India.  His work focuses on technology and policy, especially for sustainable development. He leads the Energy, Natural Resources, and Sustainability group at CSEP, and is also active in broader issues of technology. 

Dr. Tongia’s work spans the entire gamut of energy and electricity, with focuses on supply options including renewable energy (covering finance, grid integration, etc.); smart grids, which use innovative information and communications technology to improve management of the electric utility grid; issues of access and quality; and broader issues of reforms and regulations, including electricity and energy pricing. Another thread of his work focuses on climate equity and the energy transition. His book Future of Coal in India: Smooth Transition or Bumpy Road Ahead (2020) was awarded a Top Energy Policy Book to read in 2021 by BookAuthority.

He was a pioneer for establishing the Smart Grid space in India and was Technical Advisor of the Government of India’s Smart Grid Task Force, and he remains Founding Advisor of the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF). He was also on the Technology Advisory Board 2005-2008 for Southern California Edison’s award-winning smart grid rollout. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Tongia is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and also Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, having originally joined the faculty at CMU in 1998. Selected previous roles include Vice-Chair of the UN ICT Task Force Working Group on Low-cost connectivity-access/enabling environment and Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Advanced Energy Technology.

The Asia Policy Program is a joint effort of the Clements Center for National Security and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law.