Modi Touts India's Clean Power Boom, but 90% Oil Import Habit Lingers

Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India's clean energy buildout is now a buffer against oil shocks spilling out of a perpetually tense West Asia. Speaking at the inauguration of the Bharat Renewable Energy Summit in Delhi on Monday, he tied energy security straight to economic security: a world too dependent on fossil fuels, he warned, will keep getting knocked off course. More than half of India's installed power capacity now runs on non-fossil sources, he said, and the country sits among the world's top three in solar and renewable energy.

The money followed the megawatts. India has pulled in over Rs 15 lakh crore into the sector across the past decade, according to Modi, with Rs six lakh crore of that landing in just the last two years.

But the celebration has a stubborn asterisk, and The Hans India says it's too big to wave away: roughly 90 per cent dependence on imported oil. Progress on access and supply diversification hasn't erased the country's exposure to swings in crude, LNG, LPG and coal availability. The recent war in Iran laid the risk bare — attacks on key shipping routes don't just move pump and cooking gas prices, the paper notes, they ripple into fertiliser subsidies, industrial competitiveness, headline inflation and the trade deficit.

The switch away from fossil fuels won't be quick or smooth, the paper argues, and energy security can't be sacrificed for environmental targets. Oil and gas stay essential to transportation, petrochemicals, manufacturing and other critical sectors for years yet. The real task, in its telling: cut import dependence, sharpen domestic capabilities and make the existing supply chain tougher.

That's where Reliance Group's refining muscle comes in. Its Jamnagar complex ranks among the largest refining hubs on the planet, and the paper points out that its capability has drawn recognition — including from US President Donald Trump. When geopolitics gets choppy, being able to process crude of different grades and keep supplies flowing becomes a security asset, not just a commercial one.

The Hans India wants New Delhi to throw the doors open wider to private players in oil exploration, refining, storage and distribution — backed by predictable regulation, rational taxation and an end to arbitrary policy swings. It also presses for bigger strategic petroleum reserves and storage for natural gas and other essential fuels. Diversifying where imports come from helps, the paper concludes, but it's no substitute for building at home.