Energy security is one of the key challenges confronting the nation. Even though India is the eleventh largest producer of energy in the world, the gap between production and consumption is huge and growing. Most of the deficit in the energy front is due to the fact that India is a net importer of oil. India continues to depend heavily on coal and hydel power and coal will continue to remain as the most important energy source for the foreseeable future. The recent global advances in nuclear power generation enhanced the importance of nuclear power in bridging the energy gap in India, especially in the power sector. Nuclear energy is currently enjoying enormous interest internationally, and particularly in India, due to a combination of factors—such as increasing fuel prices, diminishing resources of the fossil fuels, and environmental problems. This article analyses India's nuclear programme and discusses in detail the pros and cons of enhancing the role of nuclear power for India's energy needs.

Energy security is a serious concern before the nation. The enormity of the situation can be readily understood from the statistics of the last few decades and seeing for oneself the many fold increase in energy consumption. The more than doubling of the world population, the multifold expansion of the global economy and the tripling of production of food grains during the last five decades have contributed to this increase in consumption of goods and services. There has also been a tremendous increase in the number of automobiles on the road and this period has also seen the volume of air traffic ballooning.

The direct consequence of this increase in consumption is the tremendous demand for energy. The relationship between increased consumption in general and increase in energy needs can at times be subtle, missing our notice. For example, even consumption of water, which seems to involve no usage of energy, involves spending energy in the form of oil/electricity used for bore wells, pumping out water and transporting it to population centres. Thus, energy has become a very important and an all-pervasive factor in running economies. It is natural that with such explosive growth in demand, the competition for energy resources is also becoming increasingly intense.

There are considerable concerns on its energy security for India. Even though India is the eleventh largest producer of energy in the world, it is the sixth largest consumer of energy and the gap between production and consumption of energy is huge and increasing by the day. With India projected to vault to the fourth position in energy consumption in the near future, our energy deficit will widen significantly. India has been growing at a high rate over the last 15 years

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