Energy Security and Efficiency : Role of Bio-Gas. ----Leena Mehendale The question of energy security has become a major important agenda of the Government. With far higher cry for rural power, and high fluctuations in the international crude prices, the search for alternative fuels has become more urgent. A real boost to the solution for energy security however, lies in efficiency, rather than in higher supply. This aspect struck me greatly when recently I had a chance to look at the Integrated Energy Policy - a document prepared some two years back by Planning Commission of India. Let us look at some of the numbers mentioned therein. Our annual consumption of energy is nearly 450 Million Tonnes of Oil Equivalent (Mtoe). Out of this 110 Mtoe, that is, nearly one fourth, comes from non-commercial resources and only 340 Mtoe is commercial, in the form of electric power, Petroleum and Coal. The non-commercial sources are wood, biomass a...