World Energy Outlook 2007

In total, India has 23 official languages. India’s judiciary is independent
of the executive and the legislature. Investors can, accordingly, have some
confidence in national and state laws which, in principle, offer considerable
protection. However, in practice, the legal system is characterised
by very serious delays and there are cases of corruption and
undue interference (World Bank, 2006a). There is a huge backlog of court
cases. In 2005 the Indian government enacted the “Right to Information Act”
in an effort to make information about the working of the country’s
administration and government more accessible and transparent to its citizens.
India has a strong and proactive civil society and a free and vibrant press.
Following the 2004 general election, the government was formed
by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), an 11-party coalition led
by the Indian National Congress (INC), with Manmohan Singh as prime
minister. Coalition governments are a relatively new phenomenon
in India. Since independence, the INC has ruled the country for most of the
time. Since 1989, coalition governments have prevailed, reflecting political
developments at the state level and the emergence of strong regional parties. At
the state level, there has been a trend away from national “all-India” parties,
including the INC and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), towards smaller, more
narrowly-based and caste-oriented regional parties. This trend has made it
more difficult to form national governments and to agree on political priorities.
The Economic Context 2
Economic Growth and Structure
With gross domestic product (GDP) of $4 159 billion in purchasing power
parity (PPP) terms in 2006 3 , India had the fourth-largest economy
in the world, after the United States, China and Japan. India accounted
for 6.3% of global GDP and nearly a quarter of GDP in developing Asia.
At market exchange rates, India’s GDP in 2006, at $887 billion,
was the thirteenth-largest in the world, after China, Brazil, Russia and nine
OECD countries. On this basis, India represented about 2% of global
GDP.
India’s economy grew by about 3% per year on average in the 1970s. Growth
picked up in the 1980s and 1990s, averaging 5.8% per year. It has accelerated
since 2000, averaging close to 7%. India saw growth of 9.7% in 2006,
14
2. This section has benefited from the discussion among participants of the WEO-2007 workshop
organised in New Delhi on 23 March 2007. The analysis and projections in Part C also benefited
from valuable input from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) of India.
3. GDP data for 2006 are from the International Monetary Fund.
Chapter 14 – Political, Economic and Demographic Context 427