Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on Independence Day of Samudra Manthan, a mission to accelerate domestic oil and gas exploration, could not have come at a more pressing hour for India.
Global geopolitical trends and trade turmoil have turned the spotlight on measures to moderate the outflow of dollars through our single largest drain: oil and gas imports. We ship in close to nine-tenths of the crude barrels we need, even as local sales of petroleum products are growing at a 6-7% annual clip. Home output of crude, which has been unable to keep pace, must rise sharply if we are to move the needle on self-reliance.