Sep 24, 2013

Indira, India and fuels.

You know, if Indira was there, she would have nationalized crude oil and petroleum sector. :(

This was a status I had put up some days back and you can see how that went here.
I was expecting someone to point out the glaring hole in this whole idea. Nobody did, and hence I will point it out myself.

While it is a good idea to nationalize the crude oil sector so as to keep a check on the oil imports and the forex changing hands, we need to see what happens after that.
Reliance, if nationalized, will bring down the prices of indigenous oil produce. Now, there will be reduction in prices (reliance/desi oil bringing it a bit down). But that would also mean more people find it affordable. Or people will stop thinking twice before using a car for that 100 m drive.-which they think twice about, right now-
While they get back to 'I can afford to' mode, the requirement will rise up further. Every tom dick and harry will be using his car to show off and travel those petty distances.
As the demand rises, prices will have to either rise or the supply has to.
Either shankaran will get back to the coconut tree or we will pay more forex anyway.
So, technically that would just be a way to stall a higher but imminent price hike. Only advantage would be that instead of a capitalist pocket, we will be filling other pockets.
Sourcing from countries that would accept rupee is only a temporary solution. A permanent one has to be sought. Btw, there is this article in The Hindu today, that talks about substituting conventional fuels for vehicles with ethanol. That seems to be a brilliant idea. We are after all the second largest producer of sugar cane. We just need a government with balls to do that.
Cheerz!
DN

2 comments:

pradeep said...

Think about giving discounts on dowry/free entry to elite clubs/free scotch whiskey/free tickets to contest elections for those who use non fuel vehicles like a bicycle. How about that option?

Durga Nandan said...

Awesome idea. Although politicians would not back the "free tickets" idea. The common man is still a taboo in politics. :P