1 CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN COAL AND ENERGY IN SAARC – OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN THE BACKDROP OF

SAARC is a diverse conglomerate of nations, mostly developing ones, where the demand for power has soared, propelled by the inexorable inertia of population explosion and aspirations for higher quality of life. This presentation is an attempt to provide a tour d’horizon of the options for meeting this burgeoning demand from the currently available array of energy options that meet the multiple criteria of acceptability, affordability and availability, which are necessarily country-spicific.There is no gainsaying the fact that energy availability will be central to the development agenda in SAARC, as the catalyst for change for a better future. The tsunami wave of globalization, nay internationalization, has opened new windows for establishing increasing interdependence in the energy sector and this aspects will also deserve some consideration. The role of coal in the current and future energy landscape in SAARC will also be examined vis-à-vis SAARC observer countries- China and USA- to gain some insight into the prospects of energy development via coal in Bangladesh and Pakistan. ENERGY SECTOR IN SAARC – THE CURRENT STATUS The highlights of the energy sector in SAARC nations can be summarized as below: Economic growth has propelled energy consumption The growth is constrained by significant energy defici