Rahul Tongia
Rahul Tongia is a Senior Fellow with CSEP in New Delhi, where his work focuses on technology and policy, especially for sustainable development. He co-leads the Energy, Natural Resources, and Sustainability group at CSEP, and is also active in broader issues of technology. Tongia’s work spans the entire gamut of energy and electricity, with focuses on supply options including renewable energy (covering finance, grid integration, etc.); smart grids, which use innovative information and communications technology to improve management of the electric utility grid; issues of access and quality; and broader issues of reforms and regulations, including electricity and energy pricing. Another thread of his work focuses on climate equity and the energy transition. His book Future of Coal in India: Smooth Transition or Bumpy Road Ahead (2020) was awarded a Top Energy Policy Book to read in 2021 by BookAuthority.
He was a pioneer for establishing the Smart Grid space in India and was Technical Advisor of the Government of India’s Smart Grid Task Force, and he remains Founding Advisor of the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF). He was also on the Technology Advisory Board 2005-2008 for Southern California Edison’s award-winning smart grid rollout. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.
Rahul Tongia is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and also Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, having originally joined the faculty at CMU in 1998. Previous roles include Vice-Chair of the UN ICT Task Force Working Group on Low-cost connectivity-access/enabling environment and Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Advanced Energy Technology.
Representative Publications
Future of Coal in India: Smooth Transition or Bumpy Road Ahead?
Edited by Rahul Tongia and Anurag Sehgal, with Puneet Kamboj
Power System Management
- R. Tongia and G. Gupta “Amendments to the Electricity Act 2003: A summary, analysis, and public comments” Discussion Note, November 2018
- R. Tongia, S. Harish and R. Walawalkar “Integrating Renewable Energy Into India’s Grid ̶ Harder Than It Looks” Brookings India IMPACT Series No. 112018-01. November 2018.
- R. Tongia, V. Rai, and G. Shrimali, “Data management: India needs agency for energy data”, Correspondence in Nature, 541, 30, doi:10.1038/541030d, January 5, 2017.
- V. Rai, R. Tongia, G. Shreemali, and N. Abhyankar, “Data for Development: The Case for an Indian Energy Information Administration” in Energy Research & Social Science, 25 (2017) 105–109, March 2017.
- H. Safiullah, G. Hug, and R. Tongia, “Design of Load Balancing Mechanism for Indian Electricity Markets” Energy Systems, pp 1 – 42, doi:10.1007/s12667-016-0199-3, uploaded April 2016.
- R. Tongia, “Rating of Distribution Utilities in India: Linking the Financial with Operational, with Granularity” Brookings India Discussion Paper 01-2015, October 2015.
Renewable Energy
- R. Tongia “Renewable Energy “versus” coal in India – A false framing as both have a role to play” Policy Brief-1, October 2018
- R. Tongia and S. Gross “Working to turn ambition into reality” Brookings India Paper-4, September 2018
- R. Tongia “Renewable Energy Forecasting in India – Not a simple case of ‘more is better’,” Brookings India Discussion Note, No. 112017, November 2017.
- R. Tongia, Chair and lead author, Working Group 4 Report on Policy Issues for Scaling up RE, for the Final Report of the Clean Energy Finance Forum (CEFF), December 2016.
- R. Tongia, “India’s Updated (2016) Renewable Energy ‘Guidelines’: Bold targets, but can we meet them?” Brookings India IMPACT Series, No. 082016-2.1, August 24, 2016.
- “Blowing Hard or Shining Bright?: Making Renewable Power Sustainable in India” (2015), Rahul Tongia (Ed.), Brookings India, New Delhi.
Coal
- P. Kamboj and R. Tongia “Indian Railways and Coal: An unsustainable interdependency”, Brookings India report, July 2018.
- Tongia, R; Seligsohn, Deborah (2017). “Challenges and Recommendations for Meeting the Upcoming 2017 Standards for Air Pollution from Thermal Power Plants in India,” Brookings India IMPACT Series, Research Paper No. 022017. February 2017
- R. Tongia and A. Sehgal, “Coal Requirement in 2020: A Bottom-up Analysis,” Brookings India Report, July 2016.
Electricity Access and Supply
- Ali and R. Tongia “Electrifying Mobility in India: Future prospects for the electric and EV ecosystem”, Brookings India IMPACT Series No. 052018. May 2018.
- Tongia, Rahul (2018). “Microgrids in India: Myths, Misunderstandings, and the Need for Proper Accounting”, Brookings India IMPACT Series No. 022018. February 2018.
- Tongia, Rahul (2017). “Delhi’s Household Electricity Subsidies: High and Inefficient,” Brookings India IMPACT Series No. 042017b. April 2017.
- R. Tongia, “A Game Changer — Electricity Feeder Monitoring, Visualization, Analytics and Consumer Notifications: Suggestions for improvements” Brookings India Discussion Paper 02-2016, June 2016.
- Tongia, Rahul (2014). “Re-thinking Access and Electrification in India: From Wire to Service“, Brookings India Discussion Note 1. September 2014
- S. Harish and R. Tongia, “Do rural residential electricity consumers cross-subside their urban counterparts?” Brookings India Working Paper 04-2014, August 2014.
IT and sustainable development, including Smart Grids
- R. Tongia, “Improving India’s mobile phone service” in Mint, April 17, 2018.
- R. Tongia, Contributor, Smart Grid Handbook for Regulators and Policy Makers, by India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF), December 2017.
- R. Tongia, “Making a smart energy grid work for India”, in Mint (Technology Special), June 29, 2017.
- R. Tongia, “Updating Aadhaar for better Privacy”, Opinion in The Hindu, March 28, 2016.
- R. Tongia, “A Developing Country’s Perspective of the Smart Grid” in IEEE Newsletter, March 2016.
Contact
- Email: rahul.tongia@csep.org
- Tel: 011 24157773 (direct); 011 2415 7600 CSEP
Topics and Expertise
- Sustainable Development
- Energy
- Climate Change
- Electricity
- Environment
- Global Development
- Technology and Innovation
- Smart Systems
- Information and Communications Technology
- Digital Divide
- Technology Transfer
- Political Economy
Vertical (Primary)
- Energy, Natural Resources, and Sustainability
Current Positions
- Senior Fellow (non-resident), Brookings Institution
- Adjunct Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
- Founding Advisor, India Smart Grid Forum
- International Advisory Council, World Computer Exchange
Past Positions
- Member, World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council on Advanced Energy Technology
- Technical Advisor, Smart Grid Task Force, Government of India
- Board Member, Global Smart Grid Federation
- Program Director and Principal Research Scientist, Center for Study of Science,
Technology, and Policy (CSTEP) - Chair and Co-Chair, Digital Energy Solutions Consortium (DESC), India
- Board of Governors and Treasurer, IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT)
- Member, Advisory Board, TechBridgeWorld, Carnegie Mellon University
- Technology Advisory Board, Southern California Edison, SmartConnect
- Vice Chairman, U.N. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Task Force
- Working Group on Enabling Environment (formerly Low-cost access connectivity)
- Executive Committee, IEEE Power and Energy Society, Bangalore
- Council of Reference, OPLAN Foundation
- Advisory Committee, VaasaETT
- Associate Editor, Information Technology and International Development (ITID) journal
- Editorial Board, I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society
Education
- Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University (1998)
- B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Brown University (1995)
The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) is an independent, public policy think tank with a mandate to conduct research and analysis on critical issues facing India and the world and help shape policies that advance sustainable growth and development.