Greenpeace have picked a nice soft target here. The Indian power élite is well aware that their coal policy is quite impossible. Coal of India, an inefficient statist behemoth, can´t fuel a major growth in electricity at anything like the very low price Indians expect. The plan, if you can call it that, to mine coal in Mozambique, building 500km (!) of railway first, smacks of desperation.

India already had a power cut in July that left 680 million pople without electricity for hours. This will get worse. State governments are turning to renewables simply because they can deliver electricity to peasant voters before the next election.

I expect we’ll see a lot of PHEVs in use with the military, especially in forward bases. If they can gen the energy they need with solar for routine patrols they’re going to jump at that rather than haul fuel at $300+ per gallon. Regardless of what the fuel is.

We’d have to build the gassification infrastructure. Petroleum infrastructure is in place.

If there was a huge price on carbon and carbon capture and sequestering could be done at a reasonable price, then maybe. But there isn’t.

Almost certainly we’re looking at a drop in fuel demand. That’s based on reasonable improvements in EV range and cost, nothing “breakthrough”. Between EVs, more efficient ICEVs, and improved public transportation I think oil demand is likely to drop over the next decade or so. Industry isn’t going to invest immense amounts of money into a declining market.
Then add in some possible, but not impossible, developments. Algae/duckweed/cellulose liquid fuel develops at something less than “$100/barrel”. We do have a battery breakthrough and get affordable, rapid charging, 200 mile range EVs soon. Big money understands that these things could happen. And that they create major risk for gassification infrastructure investments.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/07/26/indian-solar-power-plant-100-mw/#comment-978218226

Before a new super-critical coal plant could be built solar will be down to $1/watt, China is now installing at that price point.

India has a strong wind program and is the site of a major turbine manufacturer.

Coal continues to be a dead man walking….

That will have a huge effect on public health and cost them dearly on the social level. Even if the state doesn’t have to pay for health damages resulting from burning coal, (I assume they don’t have state-financed health insurance), social unrest among the poor may cause a lot of damage. Their social system is already close to its limits (see those raping incidents recently), this will just further stress it.