Although Central Asia emerged out of the ashes of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, yet the ‘Five Stans’ (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) as a single geopolitical entity has emerged as new hotspot of global politics by virtue of its huge untapped hydrocarbon potentials and promises of new discoveries. That is perhaps the reason that even after the disintegration of the USSR, the geopolitical importance of Central Asia has never waned down, instead emerged as a grand chessboard for regional and extra-regional players. In the quest for energy security and diversity of supply sources by the energy consumers, the heartland region has witnessed a new great game in the scramble for resources to which many now call as the New Great Game for not just controlling but administering the energy resources of the region. This article examines the position of India in Central Asia and her policy initiatives in the epic quest for oil and energy in the traditional bastion of Russia and the new grand chessboard of China and the USA and endeavours to unearth if India at all have a foreign policy discourse towards the region.

中文翻译：

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中亚的管道政治与印度的能源探索

虽然中亚从苏联解体的灰烬中崛起，但作为一个单一的地缘政治实体的“五个斯坦”（哈萨克斯坦、土库曼斯坦、乌兹别克斯坦、塔吉克斯坦和吉尔吉斯斯坦）凭借其独特的优势，成为全球政治的新热点。巨大的未开发碳氢化合物潜力和新发现的希望。或许正因如此，即使在苏联解体之后，中亚的地缘政治重要性也从未减弱，而是成为区域和区域外参与者的大棋盘。在能源消费者寻求能源安全和供应来源多样化的过程中，腹地地区见证了一场新的资源争夺战，许多人现在称之为新的大博弈，不仅控制而且管理能源资源。该区域。