‘India faces formidable challenges on energy front’

April 28, 2012
Electra

Bhatinda, April 28: Stating that India faces “formidable” challenges on the energy front, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said spiralling international oil prices have put a strain on the country’s import bill and domestic prices need to be rationalised.

“With imports accounting for about 80 per cent of our crude supplies, the spiralling prices of crude in the international market have put a severe strain on our import bill,” he said formally opening a USD 4 billion refinery here.

State-owned oil companies haven’t raised diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene for almost a year despite cost of raw material rising by a quarter.

“We also need to rationalise prices and at the same time ensure that the poor and needy are shielded from the effects of such a rationalisation,” he said.

The government had in June 2010 freed petrol prices from its control but PSU oil companies haven’t been able to raise prices because of political pressure. Petrol price of Rs 65.64 a litre in Delhi is about Rs 9 short of its cost.

The government controls rates of diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene. Oil companies sell diesel at a discount of Rs 16.16 a litre, while they lose Rs 32.59 on sale of every litre of kerosene. A 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder costs Rs 570.50 less than its actual cost.

“In order to insulate the common man from the impact of rising oil prices, the Government shoulders a sizeable portion of the burden by pricing diesel, Kerosene and domestic LPG below their market prices,” he said.

Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum lost about Rs 138,800 crore in revenues on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost in 2011-12. This fiscal, the revenue loss is estimated at Rs 208,000 crore.

“The challenges we face on the energy front are formidable. We need adequate supplies of energy at affordable prices. Domestic sources of crude oil and gas are inadequate to meet the growing demands of our rapidly expanding economy,” Dr. Singh said.

The Prime Minister said the 9 million tonne a year Guru Gobind Singh Refinery was built at a total investment of Rs 20,000 crore and is an example of what the public and the private sectors can achieve in partnership with each other.

“Ever since the project was initiated in the year 2004, our government has been monitoring its progress regularly and I am happy that our long standing commitment to the people of Punjab has finally been fulfilled,” he said.

HMEL, a joint venture of steel czar Lakshmi N Mittal’s Mittal Energy Investments and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), built the refinery in 42 months.

The refinery will produce fuel meeting Euro-III and IV standards and “reiterates our commitment to safeguarding our environment while pushing ahead with growth,” Dr. Singh said. “The products from this refinery will especially help in bridging the gap between demand and supply in the northern region of the country.”

Stating that the refinery sector in India has grown phenomenally, he said the nation has emerged as a refining hub with capacity increasing from 62 million tonne per annum in 1998 to 213 million tonne.

“We have sufficient refining capacity to enable us to export petroleum products,” the Prime Minister said.

Start-up of Bhatinda refinery will help boost India’s exports and may open fuel sales to Pakistan.

Pakistan allows imports of fuels including petrol and diesel from India, after removing non-tariff barriers on November 2. The distance between Bathinda and Lahore is about 100 miles.

Dr. Singh said, “We need to take steps to conserve our scarce energy resources. There is no room for inefficient and wasteful usage of fuel, be it petrol, diesel, kerosene or gas.”

He added, “We need to adopt better technology and consumers should be made aware of the benefits of fuel conservation.”

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News Network
April 28,2020

New Delhi, Apr 28: With 1,594 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the last 24 hours and 51 deaths, India's total count of coronavirus cases surged to 29,974, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

The total cases are inclusive of 7,026 cured and discharged patients, one migrated and 937 deaths.

At present, there are 22,010 active COVID-19 cases in the country.

Addressing a press conference here, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, said that in the last 28 days, 17 districts have had no new Covid-19 cases. "This means we need to maintain constant vigil," he added.

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News Network
January 9,2020

New Delhi, Jan 9: The Union government has removed the central security cover of Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam and DMK leader M K Stalin, officials said on Thursday.

They said while Paneerselvam had a smaller 'Y+' cover of central paramilitary commandos, Stalin had a larger 'Z+' protection.

The security cover of these two politicians has been taken off from the central security list after a threat assessment review was made by central security agencies and approved by the Union home ministry, they said.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) commandos were protecting these two leaders of Tamil Nadu.

However, they said, the central security cover will be formally taken off after the state police takes over their security task, they added.

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Agencies
March 14,2020

New Delhi, Mar 14: India on Friday was mulling over the option of deporting The Wall Street Journal's South Asia deputy bureau chief for misreporting Delhi riots in which over 50 people were killed last month. However, the government denied that it had made any such decision.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that a complaint was registered against Eric Bellman, the WSJ South Asia deputy bureau chief based in New Delhi, by a private individual on the government's online grievance redressal platform.

"Referring the complaint to the related office is a routine matter as per standard procedure. No such decision on deportation has been taken by the Ministry of External Affairs," Kumar said.

However, government-funded Prasar Bharati News Services had earlier tweeted screenshots of the complaint which was filed by an undersecretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Vinesh K Kalra, saying that the ministry has asked the Indian embassy in the US to "look into the request for immediate deportation of Bellman for his "anti-India behaviour".

The official had complained to the embassy about Bellman's controversial reportage on the killing of an Intelligence Bureau staffer named Ankit Sharma.

The WSJ had reported that Ankit Sharma's brother had said that he was killed by a mob belonging to a particular religious community. Ankit's brother later told Indian media that he never spoke to the WSJ reporter.

After the Prasar Bharati tweet got circulated widely on social media, the government backtracked and said that no such decision has been taken.

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