I don’t doubt that. But unlike say, the US India lacks significant Oil reserves and unlike Brazil, India has little land to spare for bio-fuels.
China has built up a 20 year head start over India in forming strategic natural resources partnerships. With a rapidly rising middle class in Africa it is conceivable that India will be squeezed. That’s why India has to seriously consider alternatives to automobile driven economic growth - it may not be sustainable.
I think the squeez from Africa had much less to do with rising middle class in Africa as much as it has to do with the crisis in (but not restricted to)North Africa. If China has 20 years head start over India. India has the same over much of Africa. Right now as we speak Ethiopia, Somali, Kenya, Djibouti and Uganda are facing massive food crisis. Too early for the African “middle class†if there is such a thing to worry about energy crisis of the future at this point. As poor as India maybe with the looming population increase, you still don’t have Oxfam and UN aid agencies working in India. Not to mention Africa’s struggling energy sector has grown only 3% annually in last three decades which has inhibited Africa’s GDP growth.