Energy rate, availability among short-term challenges for India: Sitharaman

Energy prices and availability are among the biggest problems facing the Indian economy in the near future, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said

Energy prices and availability are among the biggest problems facing the Indian economy in the near future, India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

Citing the challenges as external, she mentioned energy costs in the context of previously fulfilled environmental commitments.

"But at this stage, if natural gas is going to be beyond our means, obviously you're looking at reverting to coal to an extent because you need the base level of electricity to be generated," Sitharaman said. "And that just cannot be done only through solar or wind energy."

Sitharaman spoke at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution in the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Washington.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; editing by Jonathan Oatis)