Editorial 1: India-Australia defence ties beyond American shadows

Context

Australia’s recognition of India as a ‘top-tier security partner’ can aid in navigating a world where U.S. security guarantees are seen as increasingly conditional.

Introduction

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has caused significant disruption in the global security landscape. With NATO being placed on a burden-sharing timeline and Trump’s cold, transactional approach to security commitments worldwide, the Indo-Pacific region is at a critical juncture. However, this also presents a strategic opportunity for middle powers like India and Australia to strengthen their defence relationship.

Strategic Complementarity of Australia and India

• Australia’s strategic geography bridges the Indian and Pacific Oceans, with territories and a military presence near Southeast Asia.
• This geographical position complements India’s maritime ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has extensive experience in coalition operations, enhancing Indian military capabilities.
  • Example: The recently implemented air-to-air refuelling arrangement extends operational reach.
• Australia’s established relationships with Pacific Island nations align with India’s growing interests in the region.
• Both nations share concerns about China’s assertiveness and hold a common vision for sovereign resilience and regional stability.

Strengthening the New Delhi-Canberra Defence Partnership

• While Japan, South Korea, and Europe are valuable partners for India, the New Delhi-Canberra defence relationship has built strong bureaucratic foundations.
• Over the past decade, successive Australian Prime Ministers and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi have elevated this partnership.
• Canberra now regards New Delhi as a “top-tier security partner”.
• This relationship provides a solid launch pad to navigate a world where American security guarantees are perceived as increasingly conditional.

Bureaucratic Foundations and Practical Cooperation

• Key institutional frameworks include:
  • Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) 2020.
  • The 2+2 ministerial dialogue launched in 2021 for high-level strategic coordination.
• Practical cooperation has advanced through agreements such as:
  • Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), streamlining logistics during joint exercises and humanitarian missions.
  • November 2024 Air-to-Air refuelling arrangement, enabling the Royal Australian Air Force to extend the operational reach of Indian aircraft.
• Military exercises demonstrate the depth of cooperation:
  • AUSTRAHIND (Army).
  • AUSINDEX (Navy).
  • Participation in multilateral exercises such as Pitch Black and Malabar.
• These reflect a decade of careful relationship-building.

Limitations and Challenges

• Neither New Delhi nor Canberra can fully fill the security gap left by the United States alone.
• India’s continental challenges remain significant:
  • Active border dispute with China.
  • Conventional and sub-conventional threats from Pakistan.
• Australia is undergoing major changes in its strategic role and military capabilities:
  • Comprehensive overhaul of the armed forces.
  • Acquisitions under AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, U.S.).
  • Increased outreach to smaller island states within its maritime geography.

Immediate Priorities for Regional Security Cooperation

Given the evolving regional security architecture, both India and Australia must focus on the following five aspects for effective partnership and resilience:

1. Rebalance Defence Engagement Beyond Silos

• While Navy-to-Navy cooperation has thrived, there is a pressing need to break down service barriers across the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
• This can be advanced through joint military exercises that simulate real-world operations.
• Both countries should move towards establishing a dedicated forum for joint staff talks.
• Aim to conduct a major combined joint exercise within the next decade that thoroughly tests their collective capabilities.

2. Enhance India’s Defence Footprint in Canberra

• India should upgrade its Defence Adviser (DA) position in Canberra to a one-star rank to reflect the strategic importance of the relationship.
• Traditionally held by a Navy official, the position could be strengthened by including dedicated Army and Air Force personnel as assistants to ensure balanced service participation.
• There is a need for dedicated personnel to handle engagement with Pacific Island nations, a role currently managed by the efficient DA in Canberra.

3. Elevate Ground-Level Ideas and Operational Insights

• India must promote ground-up ideas from working-level personnel rather than limiting dialogues to diplomatic formalities.
• Including more uniformed professionals with operational experience and creating spaces for classified discussions can foster fresh, actionable thinking.
• Initiatives such as fellowships for staff college graduates and regular war-gaming exchanges will enhance mutual understanding and build the foundation for genuine cooperation.

4. Explore Cooperation in Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO)

• India should deepen cooperation with Australia in the Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) of naval vessels.
• New Delhi has demonstrated strong capabilities in this sector, with ongoing contracts involving the U.S. and British navies.
• Joint efforts in manufacturing and supplying patrol boats for small island security forces in the Indian Ocean Region and Pacific will reinforce joint intentions and capabilities.
• Though seemingly modest, collaboration in MRO and patrol boats will generate significant second- and third-order effects, particularly through exposure to each other’s technologies and platforms.

5. Reset Defence Industry Collaboration

• The defence industry collaboration between India and Australia requires a fresh approach.
• Most of Australia’s major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are branch offices of European, East Asian, or American firms.
• Consequently, Indian OEMs have tended to engage directly with the parent companies of these firms abroad rather than their Australian offices.
• This has resulted in a missed opportunity to deepen cooperation within the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.
• Defence and aerospace startups in both countries are leading the way in cutting-edge technologies.
• Their work in components and dual-use technologies makes them ideal partners for collaboration, offering significant potential for joint innovation and growth.

Conclusion

Similar to New Delhi, Canberra is also pursuing an indigenisation programme in the defence sector. Hence, there is an opportunity to align the MSME sectors of both countries. To facilitate this, they could consider adopting a model akin to the U.S.-India INDUS X framework.

Editorial 2: A strategy fuelled by vision, powered by energy

Context

India’s energy sector can be summed up in three simple words — confidence, self-reliance, and smart planning for the future.

Introduction

India recently overtook Japan to become the world’s fourth largest economy. Since 2014, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, India’s GDP has more than doubled to $4.3 trillion in 2025, driven by a decade-long strategy focused on reforms, resilience, and self-reliance. India is now the fastest-growing major economy and an emerging strategic force globally. The energy sector has undergone a significant structural transformation during the first year of Modi 3.0, building on a decade of foundational change. With a 6.7% growth rate in the last quarter, India’s growth trajectory is unmatched by any other country in the near future.

India’s Energy Position

• India is the 3rd largest energy and oil consumer globally.
• It is the 4th largest oil refiner and 4th largest LNG importer.
• Energy demand is expected to grow 2.5 times by 2047.
• India will account for 25% of the increase in global energy demand.

Energy Security = Development Security

• India’s energy strategy tackles the three challenges of:
  • Availability
  • Affordability
  • Sustainability
• Approach includes:
  1. Diversifying energy sources and suppliers
  2. Increasing domestic production
  3. Shifting to renewable energy
  4. Ensuring affordability

Upstream Oil and Gas Sector Growth

Year	Exploration Acreage	Key Target for 2030	Oil/Gas Unlock Goal
2021	8%	1 million sq km exploration	42 billion tonnes oil & gas
2025	16%

• Exploration acreage doubled from 8% (2021) to 16% (2025).
• Government plans to expand exploration area to 1 million sq km by 2030.
• Goal to unlock 42 billion tonnes of oil and oil-equivalent gas.
• Reforms include:
  • ‘No-Go’ areas cut by 99%
  • Simplified licensing (Open Acreage Licensing Policy – OALP)
  • Pricing incentives for new gas wells

Gas Pricing and Contracts

• New gas pricing ties prices to 10% of Indian crude basket plus a 20% premium for new wells.
• This has improved gas availability for city gas networks and industries.
• Revenue-sharing contracts allow shared infrastructure among exploration companies to reduce costs and speed production.

Technology and Exploration Advances

• Initiatives include:
  • National Seismic Programme
  • Mission Anveshan
  • Airborne gravity gradiometry (AGG)
  • Continental shelf mapping
• These efforts improve exploration confidence, especially in frontier basins like Andamans, Mahanadi, and Cauvery.

Recent Discoveries & Collaborations

Company	Discoveries	Output Increase with Partners
ONGC + Oil India	25+ hydrocarbon discoveries in Mumbai Offshore, Cambay, Mahanadi, Assam	Mumbai High oil +44%, gas +89% with bp partnership

• Important new fields: Suryamani, Vajramani (west coast); Utkal, Konark (east coast deep waters).
• These add 75 million tonnes of oil equivalent and 2,700 million cubic meters of gas to reserves.
• A data center at University of Houston helps foreign investors access India’s exploration data.

Downstream Infrastructure Expansion

• India operates:
  • 24,000 km of product pipelines
  • Nearly 96,000 retail fuel outlets
  • Strong strategic reserves and LPG storage
• Over 67 million people visit petrol pumps daily, showing large-scale, efficient fuel distribution.

City Gas Network Growth

Year	Geographic Areas Covered	PNG Connections (crore)	CNG Stations
2014	55	0.25	Not specified
2025	307	1.5	7,500+

• City gas network expanded from 55 areas (2014) to 307 areas (2025).
• Piped Natural Gas (PNG) connections increased from 25 lakh to 1.5 crore.
• Over 7,500 CNG stations operational nationwide.
• Unified pipeline tariffs and network expansion ensure affordable access even in remote states.

The focus of the green strategy

1. Biofuels: Core of India’s Green Strategy

• Ethanol blending in petrol increased from 1.5% (2013) to 19.7% (2025).
• Blending quantity rose from 38 crore litres to 484 crore litres.
• Benefits achieved:
  • ₹1.26 lakh crore saved in foreign exchange
  • 643 lakh MT reduction in carbon emissions
  • Payments of ₹1.79 lakh crore to distillers and ₹1 lakh crore to farmers
• Ethanol Feedstock Diversification: From molasses to maize, enhancing resilience of ethanol production.

2. SATAT Initiative: Boosting Compressed Biogas (CBG)

• Over 100 CBG plants commissioned under SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation)
• Target: 5% CBG blending by 2028
• Support provided:
  • Biomass procurement aid
  • Pipeline connectivity for circular energy transition

3. Green Hydrogen: India’s Next Frontier

Metric	Value
Green Hydrogen Production	8.62 lakh tonnes
Electrolyser Tenders Awarded	3,000 MW
Landmark Project	IOCL Panipat: 10 KTPA
Key PSUs involved	IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, GAIL, NRL
Notable Unit	NRL Assam – First in Northeast

• PSUs leading the shift to clean hydrogen energy.

4. Natural Gas Network & Reforms

• Pipeline length:
  • 25,000 km now, target: 33,000 km by 2030
• Reforms introduced:
  • Strategic pricing changes
  • Gas included in ‘No Cut’ category for domestic & transport use
• Gas production grew from 28.7 BCM (2020–21) to 36.4 BCM (2023–24)

Policy Reforms: Making Upstream Competitive

• Oilfields Act Amendment (2024) enabled hybrid leases:
  • Allow renewables with hydrocarbons
• Discovered Small Fields (DSFs) under simplified contracts:
  • Lower compliance burden
  • Unlocking marginal fields across basins

Digital Infrastructure: PM Gati Shakti Integration

• 1+ lakh energy assets and pipelines digitally mapped
• Aligned with National Master Plan for real-time coordination
• Projects like Indo-Nepal Pipeline and Samruddhi Utility Corridor optimised
• Achieved ₹169 crore+ in cost savings via route planning

Conclusion

Affordability remains central to India’s energy policy. Despite a 58% rise in global LPG prices, PMUY beneficiariespay just ₹553 per cylinder, supported by targeted subsidies and compensation to oil companies. Fuel prices have remained stable through excise cuts, protecting citizens from the volatility seen in neighbouring countries. After eleven years of PM Modi’s leadership, India’s energy sector reflects confidence, self-reliance, and strategic foresight. Energy today is not merely a commodity but a foundation of sovereignty, security, and sustainable growth.