Central Asia: A New Avenue to India’s Future Energy Needs & Geo-Strategic Challenges

India is becoming global leader in terms of economic and political influences. It is an active member of G20. However, it has a great obstacle; it is not self-sufficient in petro energy. India has 5.5 billion barrels of proved crude oil and 43.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reservoir. It produces only 30 percent of its fossil fuels demand, imports 70 percent from abroad as fourth and six largest importers of crude oil and Natural Gas. In 2011 Govt. of India has decided to increase its’ strategic storage of 132 million barrels crude oil by 2020. To, achieve this target; India has to find new energy partner beyond the traditional suppliers. Moreover, presently Indian Govt. is encouraging mix consumption of oil and gas to reduce pollution in cities. But due to shortfall of production in K-G basin, India has to find gas sectors in abroad. In this scenario, the Central Asian countries could be good alternative to India. Yet now, India has no mature foreign policy for Central Asia and it is facing strong challenges from China. This, paper deals with India’s strategic interest to Central Asia in terms of its’ future energy needs, present geo-strategic and geo-political challenges highlighting the possible scopes and measures regarding this fact.