“Viksit Bharat” and atmanirbharta are resonant national slogans. There is no minister of energy in the central government with oversight responsibility for the core components of the energy ecosystem — coal, petroleum, renewables and nuclear. But if there were one, I would suggest he take the following high-level initiatives to deliver on these objectives.

First, he should ensure his cabinet colleagues agree on the interpretation of these words. That is, to have clarity and alignment on the deliverables of viksit and atmanirbhar in the context of energy.

The Hindi word viksit translates to “developed”, which most people distil down to economic metrics like GDP. The minister should make clear that viksit in the context of energy has a broader deliverable. It encompasses social inclusiveness and environmental protection.

Atmanirbhar translates to “self-sufficiency” or “self-reliance”. The policy roadmap for achieving the former is different from that for the latter.

“Self-sufficiency” is a hard metric. It means we produce what we consume. Our petroleum companies have been struggling to achieve this goal for more than half a century. The results have not been encouraging. In the mid-1970s, we imported approximately 30 per cent of our domestic crude oil requirement. Today, we import approximately 85 per cent. The reason is that whilst we know our 26 sedimentary basins contain hydrocarbons, we have had difficulty both in locating them, and even when they are located, in developing and producing them on a commercial basis.

Given this track record, even whilst self-sufficiency in petroleum is a powerful slogan behind........

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