India’s dependence on impo-rted crude oil to meet dom-estic demand has been a matter of concern for years. Delivering the inaugural add-ress at the global energy summit — Urja Sangam — in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for enhancing dom-estic oil and gas production to cut the import burden.

       He aimed at lowering it by at least 10 per cent by 2022 — to coincide with the platinum jubilee of India’s independence. But this target is far from be-ing achieved and the count-ry’s import reliance has only risen. ...