Thread by @sway_hi

Over the last week or so, enough words have been thrown by "interested" opposition on the rising crude oil prices and why the government is a failure consequently. After listening to a lot of bilge on this, here's my humble attempt to provide clarity. Do read: 1/n

1. We have always had a huge appetite for oil consumption. Of the total oil requirement of the country, about 70%-80% is imported! (graph source: prsindia.org/theprsblog/?ta…) 2/n

2. Of our Total import bill the maximum amount of our oil is imported from Middle-East, the leading nation among that being Saudi Arabia! Most of this import bill from Middle-East is paid in $, hence the rupee's link to oil price. (graph source: pgjonline.com/magazine/2015/…) 3/n

3. Only recently we have started moving away from Saudi Arabian oil import and namely towards Iranian oil, keeping in mind that both Iran and Venezuela have agreed to take payment in Rupees instead of USD.

firstpost.com/business/econo…

economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energ…

4. The pain of oil prices was not passed on to the consumer by earlier government as subsidies were used to cushion the pain. That subsidy was the tax payer money making its way in reduced oil price. The same money which should have been used to build infrastructure instead. 5/n

5.These subsidies were used to partly prop up OMC's which would have otherwise gone kaput, which in turn would lead more tax payer money down the drain in trying to bail them out: 6/n
ndtv.com/business/india…

6. Given that we are now the fastest growing country, and heavily fossil fuel dependent, this oil import bill is only slated to increase.
(graph source: worldview.stratfor.com/article/why-en…) 7/n

7. Luckily for us the current government, in the last 5 years, is aware that the only way to tackle this alarming fuel bill is by :
Make Electric Vehicles, EV ecosystems, Renewable energy revolution a reality.
Encouraging bio-fuels.
Weaning away from Saudi Arabian oil. 8/n

8. How did our "aggrieved" opposition, allow our economy to be oil-dependent for 60 years?
Why did they not enable research in solar power for decades ?
Why did the electric vehicle revolution have to wait?
Why did we fund the Saudi Arabian economy for 60 years? 9/n

9. Adding a few more bites of information, just to bring home the gargantuan problem we are sitting on. We were sitting on a humongous oil bill even in 2014:
qz.com/india/247213/w… 10/n

10. Our Crude need back in 1995 was 602 barrels per day, in 2017 this same need had grown to 4341 barrels per day!
In 1995 we paid @$27, a total of $16254 per day.
In 2017 we paid @$52.51, a total of $2,27,945 per day!
ceicdata.com/en/indicator/i… 11/n

11. The only silver lining in this gloom, doom is that the government seems to be gearing up big time, to make India an oil-free economy! 12/n
news18.com/news/auto/blue…

12. And the fact that the government is gearing up to launch a comprehensive policy framework for Electric Vehicle..13/n
reuters.com/article/us-ind…

13. Some more good news on this:

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1039168999123107840?s=19

14. And now the latest sop for EVs:
livemint.com/Industry/JQyks…