Bargaining with the 'Empire': Strategic subordination and dollar dependence in India's energy transition

Stuti Haldar () and Amir Bazaz ()
Additional contact information
Stuti Haldar: CIRCLE, Lund University
Amir Bazaz: Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Postal: Bengaluru, India

No 2026/4, Papers in Innovation Studies from Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research

Abstract: India's green transition is framed as a vision of energy security, developmental ambition, and strategic autonomy. We argue, however, that the expansion of renewable energy in India increasingly depends on financial circuits embedded in the US dollar-centered global credit hierarchy. Through a Global Credit View, we surface how the Indian state pursues energy sovereignty through a strategic dependence - building and deploying public institutions that de-risk projects, stabilise revenue streams, and render renewable infrastructure investable for transnational capital. Focusing on critical institutional nodes, we trace how they convert domestic energy assets into financial claims suited to offshore credit markets. This architecture enables rapid scale-up and preserves state-led directionality in institutional terms, yet it also deepens exposure to currency volatility, global financial cycles, and creditor discipline. India's energy transition, we argue, is therefore not only a techno-industrial project, but also a monetary settlement structured by 'strategic' subordination.

Keywords: Energy transition; Transition finance; Infrastructure governance; Energy gigantism; Global credit hierarchy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F34 Q43 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2026-09-25
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.lub.lu.se/piis/article/view/29174/25103 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2026_004

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers in Innovation Studies from Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research, Lund University, PO Box 117, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Torben Schubert ().