Federal Challenges to a Synergy Between Water and Energy Laws : An Indian Perspective

Despite the long association of water and energy, recent times have witnessed a revival of interest in harnessing the potential of this association. This impetus can be attributed to new and emerging challenges such as increasing energy demands, finiteness of most of the conventional sources of energy, greenhouse gas emissions and the need for adoption of cleaner sources of energy. The challenges become manifold in light of scarcity of water, multiple usage of water, its complex differential resource utilization, questionable claims of being a cleaner energy, environmental and social footprints of water power. This paper aims at understanding the federal implications of these interlinkages at multiple layers in the Indian context