The government desperately needs to develop an efficient public transport system to ensure there are fewer cars on the roads. India has a huge coastline and must strive harder to explore oilfields, both onshore and offshore. India seems to lack the fire and will to be self-sufficient. The government doesn’t seem too worried, it feels the structural reforms it has started will soften the impact of high crude prices. What is required is judicious management of oil resources and immediate stoppage of its wasteful use. OPEC countries control crude prices by increasing or decreasing production. Whether this is true or not, it certainly should be looked into. Now, three years later, oil prices are hovering around /barrel, and there are fears it could impact the government’s finances. Inland water transport is another area that can take the load off autos and trucks, which guzzle petrol and diesel. Efforts were made to try make India more self-reliant in oil years ago, they seem to have been half-hearted and met with little success. That doesn’t seem very likely, though the economy is still recovering slowly from the reckless demonetisation and the hurried rollout of the Goods and Services Tax. It’s a game played between oil producing nations like Russia and Saudi Arabia.

It really needs to shake off its lethargy on this count. Natural gas resources, of which there is no dearth, need to be developed.. There’s a view that imports are lucrative and involve a lot of kickbacks. India too has shale deposits but one doesn’t hear about any efforts made to recover these. It’s imperative India follow the example of the United States, which increased its domestic production hugely through the development of its shale resources. Even if it’s expensive, it’s still better in the long run if India cuts its dependency on imports and saves foreign exchange. It’s also open to the oil speculation lobby globally.The Narendra Skeleton oil seal Manufacturers Modi government, that lays so much stress on "Make-in-India", should push more aggressively for making India less dependent on imported crude.Prime Minister Narendra Modi was lucky that oil prices were low when he took over in 2014, so he could tackle the economy that was left on a shaky wicket by the Manmohan Singh government.It’s a pity that even 70 years after Independence, India still depends on oil imports for 80 per cent of its energy needs. It didn’t want to be dependent on Middle East oil because of political reasons, and it has succeeded tremendously. Nothing seems to change, despite the valiant efforts of the petroleum ministry and ONGC.It may be recalled that oil had, towards the close of the last century, touched 0 and even 0 per barrel, yet the Indian economy did quite well.