Roychoudhury, Jitendra

  • Primary Program Utilities and Renewables
  • Research Interests Energy policy, energy markets, electricity markets, commodity markets, cross-border electricity trading, geopolitics of energy and commodity trading, coal and alternative solid fuels, hydrogen, critical minerals, supply and value chains, geothermal energy

Biography

Jitendra Roychoudhury is a Principal Fellow in the Utilities and Renewables program. His ongoing research portfolio at KAPSARC covers various global and regional economic, energy, and geopolitical issues, policy developments, and the impact of such policies on international energy markets. Before joining KAPSARC, Jitendra was Director and Chief Consultant at HDR Salva, India. He has worked extensively as a commodity consultant within India’s energy and infrastructure sectors, advising on developing commodity market entry strategies. He has authored and contributed to numerous consulting studies on coal and coal policy in India, Indonesia, and China. Jitendra has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pune, India, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Welingkar’s Institute of Management, Mumbai.

Publications

See all Jitendra’s publications
  • Books/books chapters
  • Discussion papers
  • Data Insight
  • Instant Insights
  • Commentary
  • KAPSARC journal articles
  • Think20 (T20)
Revitalizing Relationships for the Clean Energy Souk

Revitalizing Relationships for the Clean Energy Souk

The GCC countries have been trading for millennia, and energy transition offers new opportunities to revitalize existing trade relationships and form new partnerships driving growth through innovation. Read More Here

18th April 2024
The Clean Hydrogen Economy and Saudi Arabia

The Clean Hydrogen Economy and Saudi Arabia

This book provides a first-of-its-kind analysis of the emerging global hydrogen economy from the vantage point of one of the world’s biggest energy providers: Saudi Arabia. In 2021, and within the context of the Circular Carbon Economy framework, Saudi Arabia announced its goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2060 and produce a substantial amount of clean hydrogen annually by 2030. The Kingdom is optimally situated geographically between the major demand markets in Europe and North Asia, from where it can leverage clean hydrogen exports as a potential tool to become a player of strategic importance and successfully diversify its economy under its Vision 2030 program. More broadly, the book charts a course for fossil fuel-exporting countries such as Saudi Arabia to carve a competitive position for themselves over the forthcoming decades using clean hydrogen as a catalyst for the energy transition. Read Full Book Here

18th April 2024
Climate Change and Transboundary Challenges in Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Climate Change and Transboundary Challenges in Middle East and Africa (MEA)

The world’s largest climate summit, the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), between 30 November and 12 December 2023, is a landmark moment in our planet’s future. With the UN 2030 climate target in perspective, we have only seven years left to reduce global carbon emissions by half and limit global warming to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels by 2050.   Read Book Chapter 

8th December 2023
Smart Cities from an Indian Perspective: Evolving Ambitions

Smart Cities from an Indian Perspective: Evolving Ambitions

Indian urban infrastructure is in the middle of a massive build-up. For several decades, Indian cities were caught between the demands of an exploding population and the need to provide infrastructure in terms of health, education, transport, and services to meet the core needs of the citizenry. With increasing prosperity and leveraging the strengths of one of the world’s largest and fast-growing economies, Indian policymakers seek to correct their previous underinvestment in city infrastructure. Smart City Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission, and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation are some of the policy vehicles planned for a broad transformation of India’s urban agenda. This chapter highlights some of the policy initiatives focused on meeting the objectives of Smart Cities. These policy initiatives are expected to help address the current service delivery gap from an urban infrastructure standpoint. By incorporating technology, improving digital access, innovations in traffic management, investments in mobility solutions, and ensuring that the heritage of the Indian cities is maintained, India seeks to answer the challenge of urbanization of millions. These policy mechanisms and the lessons from their successes and failures constitute this chapter’s core. Indian urban infrastructure developments are unique globally, primarily because of the varying range of urbanization across the country, the contextual rationale and the evolving aspirations of the policymakers, and the devolution of developmental powers to local bodies. The Indian experience of implementing the Smart Cities objectives would be unique in the world, given the scale of the massive investments and the millions of citizens whose lives are impacted.   Read Book Chapter 

15th October 2023
India’s Automotive Fuel Policies: Evolution and Challenges

India’s Automotive Fuel Policies: Evolution and Challenges

India, like many other countries, is seeking to diversify its automotive fuel mix away from conventional petroleum fuels to alternate, cleaner fuels. The primary reasons for its diversification are energy security and public health due to harmful emissions from automotive fuels. At present, in India, diesel and gasoline are the most common automobile fuels. Increasing demand for these fuels could create serious concerns for the country’s national energy security and air quality. This paper analyzes the government of India’s past and present automotive fuel policy interventions, aimed at both mitigating harmful emissions and addressing the growing concerns of energy security and rising crude oil imports.

6th November 2019
Saudi Arabian Cement Companies: Upgrading Through Leveraging Overcapacity

Saudi Arabian Cement Companies: Upgrading Through Leveraging Overcapacity

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s annual cement production capacity of 72.4 million tonnes is the highest of any Gulf country. From 2001-2005, Saudi cement production grew at a compound annual growth rate of almost 8%. However, its annual production in 2018 of 42.2 million tonnes represented a drop of nearly 46% from its historical high of 61.5 million tonnes in 2015.    

21st June 2020
India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor: Bridging Economic and Digital Aspirations

India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor: Bridging Economic and Digital Aspirations

The announcement of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) during the 2023 Group of 20 (G20) Summit in New Delhi marks a significant development for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) initiative. The PGII formation was announced in 2022 during the Group of Seven (G7) German Presidency. Initially formulated by the United Kingdom as the Build Back Better World (B3W) in 2021 during the G7 Presidency, and subsequently renamed, PGII is an initiative focused on providing infrastructure to help developing countries progress by addressing infrastructure funding requirements through public and private investments. During the recently concluded G20 Summit, at a meeting co-chaired by India and the United States of America (USA), the IMEC was announced. The proposed economic corridor will connect and stimulate economic development and growth by integrating three regions: Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and Europe (Ministry of External Affairs 2023). 

2nd October 2023
World’s First Blue Ammonia Shipment Signals Prospective New Low-Carbon Energy Trade for Saudi Arabia

World’s First Blue Ammonia Shipment Signals Prospective New Low-Carbon Energy Trade for Saudi Arabia

On September 27, 2020, Saudi Aramco successfully exported the world’s first shipment of carbon-neutral ammonia to Japan, helping to fuel the nascent Japanese hydrogen economy. This pilot shipment of 40 tonnes is an important realization of the hydrogen economy for both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Japan. It also signals a potentially important addition to the Kingdom’s export commodity portfolio. 

26th November 2020
The Use of Blockchain Technology in Saudi Logistics

The Use of Blockchain Technology in Saudi Logistics

On September 21, 2019, Saudi Customs, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Saudi Ports Authority, and the logistics firm, A.P. Moller – Maersk, jointly announced the successful completion of a blockchain pilot project tracking a shipping container from King Abdulaziz Port, Dammam to the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

22nd October 2019
India’s Oil Imports: Achilles’ Heel or Economic Javelin?

India’s Oil Imports: Achilles’ Heel or Economic Javelin?

Presenting India’s 2019 budget on July 5, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sketched out the Modi government’s vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2024, almost doubling the country’s current gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.73 trillion. To achieve this ambitious goal, India plans to liberalize foreign direct investment (FDI) rules and tap international bond markets to fund its budget deficit. The latter is a risky enterprise and ensures exchange rate policy becomes a future battleground. However, India’s economic growth has been slowing over the past two quarters, and the government has limited options to raise funds domestically, forcing it to look at external foreign currency borrowing. The government is betting that external borrowing combined with FDI inflows will lead to greater domestic investment and thus higher growth. 

21st August 2019
Enabling the Progress of the Circular Carbon Economy: India’s Approach to CCUS

Enabling the Progress of the Circular Carbon Economy: India’s Approach to CCUS

The circular carbon economy (CCE) concept is an extension of the idea of a circular economy, focusing on energy and carbon flows while implicitly retaining the circular economy’s material, energy, water, and economic flows. The goal of the CCE framework is to achieve a carbon balance or net-zero emissions in the second half of the twenty-first century; as such, the circularity of material flows is secondary to the circularity of carbon flows when they are in conflict. This commentary focuses on the carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) components of the CCE framework, highlighting the relevance of the framework in the context of India.

3rd August 2023

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