New Delhi, Jan. 27 -- As the Union budget approaches, India faces a defining choice in how it plans its energy future.

Energy assessments indicate that electricity demand will expand by over 6% annually in the second half of this decade, driven by industrial growth, urbanization, data centres and the electrification of transport and buildings.

This demand surge will test the capacity of states to deliver reliable and affordable power. In this context, the ambition of a developed India by 2047 depends not only on capacity addition, but also on how energy planning is embedded in state-level development strategies.

Clean energy has, therefore, become central to India's growth narrative. Yet, the spatial distribution of this transition is ...