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Energy use is crucial to human survival and development. Improvements in lifestyles have historically been associated with increases in energy consumption and the access to appropriate energy services has always been seen as a necessary precondition for development. While the developed or post-industrialised nations have seen some decoupling of energy and gross domestic product (GDP) growth in recent years at high levels of per capita energy use, recent trends reveal that energy consumption in India, and other fast growing developing countries, is increasing rapidly (IEA 2006). The growing share of developing countries like India in global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions serves as the backdrop to this work. The overall purpose is to increase insight into the underlying causes of the growing energy use in India by adopting a household perspective. The household perspective is adopted in order to shed light on the complex relationships between energy use, household consumption, lifestyles and development.

India has experienced and is expected to continue experiencing accelerating growth and substantive changes in the scope, scale and form in which human and economic activity is arranged and performed within its boundaries. This, in turn, will impact on the types and ways in which energy is accessed, transformed and used. The country’s current population of over one billion people is spread over an area of 329 million hectares (3.29 million square kilometres). In terms of geographical area it is the seventh largest country in the world. It is also the second most populous country and is projected by the UN to be the most populous by 2030 (UN 1990). The country exhibits wide variations in climate, topology and geography and also has wide economic, social, ethnic, religious and cultural differences amongst its inhabitants. This heterogeneity accounts for differences in habits, attitudes and lifestyles and also manifests itself in varying levels and patterns of energy use throughout the country.

This chapter gives a general introduction to energy analysis. At the outset, a brief description of the theory of energy analysis and the techniques used are discussed. Following that, the application of the input-output technique of energy analysis to calculate energy intensities for India is presented. Results of this analysis are presented and trends in energy intensities of sectors in India examined for the period from 1983–84 to 1998–99. Finally, an assessment is also carried out of the likely accuracy of the results obtained, by accounting for some of the possible sources of uncertainties.

The chapter begins with an introduction to the concept of energy requirements of households and related literature on this topic. A discussion of the methodology used for calculating total household energy requirements for India using national level data on private final consumption expenditures, and the calculated primary energy intensities of producing sectors that were presented in the last chapter, follows. After briefly introducing some of the terminology and the data sources used for the analysis, results relating to total, direct and indirect energy requirements per capita, and for total energy requirements of all households in India are presented. In Sect. 4.4, the relative importance of the main drivers of the observed changes in household energy requirements over the study period are determined using a decomposition analysis for changes in both the total as well as in each of the major categories of indirect energy requirement. Finally, some comparisons of the results of this study are made with previous studies.

In the previous chapter, results were presented on total and average per capita household energy requirements calculated from data on private consumption expenditures contained in the national input-output tables prepared by the CSO and total primary energy intensities calculated for the period from 1983–84 to 1998–99. These totals and averages, however, mask big differences in the patterns and amounts of energy used among households. In this chapter, results of household energy requirements calculations using consumer expenditure survey data for households from the National Sample Survey (NSS) and the appropriate productive energy intensities presented in Chap. 3 are discussed. Variations in total energy requirements across different types of households emanating from differences in consumption patterns are discussed and factors affecting such variations examined. A comparison of the results from the household level analysis using National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data with those of private expenditure data from the National Accounts Statistics data of the CSO, which were used for the analysis presented in the last chapter is also carried out, and discussed in Sect. 5.3.2 of this chapter.

Previous chapters of the book have focused on how to combine aggregate input-output data and energy flows to calculate energy intensities of broad sectors and use these calculated intensities in conjunction with micro-level disaggregate household survey data to analyse variations in direct and indirect energy use patters across different types of households. Households were distinguished in terms of their location (rural/urban, different states), economic status, demographic characteristics, educational and employment status, and different attributes of the dwelling area they live in. This chapter focuses, more specifically, on linkages between energy and well being at the household level. Well being is defined broadly in terms of economic status, socio-economic, and health parameters. In particular, variations in patterns of direct energy requirements and indirect energy requirements of food items, across different groups of households are examined. The two dimensions of direct energy use that are examined are access to different sources and actual use. Access to clean and efficient direct energy sources at the household level is assessed in relation to location and expenditure levels and trends in terms of the patterns of direct energy consumed are examined. Patterns of food consumption are seen through the lens of indirect energy requirements of food consumption in households. These indicators, in turn, are looked at in relation to monetary measures of well being and poverty such as per capita expenditures, sufficiency in terms of adequate nutrition or caloric content of food consumed, and other measures of human development and well being such as health and education.

This concluding chapter discusses the main lessons emerging from the work contained in this book. Key results pertaining to the empirical analysis conducted, together with observations on the methods used are presented. It acknowledges the difficulties of conducting research that transcends some established methodological boundaries and presents the main limitations of the research in this context. While some of the key findings from the analysis presented in previous chapters are revisited and main achievements highlighted in this chapter, it does not present a comprehensive summary of all the results. The chapter is organised in three sections. The first provides some general conclusions from the empirical part of the research. The key findings of applying a household perspective to study energy consumption in the Indian scenario are also discussed and some general reflections and implications of the work are presented. In the second section, the general findings, from the application of the different methods to the Indian data and situation, are highlighted. The main methodological limitations, largely pertaining to data availability and quality, are also discussed. Finally, the last section presents the scope for future research in this field.