PHDCCI head urges wider domestic oil and gas search and clean power to lessen imports

what happened

Moody's reports that Anil Gupta, who leads PHDCCI and chairs KEI Industries, wants India to search harder for oil and gas at home, scale up wind and solar output, and push electric vehicles. He argued that private companies should get attractive contract terms so they put more money into drilling.

Gupta said India had handled the jump in global crude prices fairly well, with pump prices in India up roughly 10 to 15 per cent while some other nations saw rises above 100 per cent. He credited steady domestic demand, the China-plus-one approach and trade pacts with Europe and the UAE, which he expects to lift exports within two to three years.

On minerals, he said India depends almost entirely on imports for copper, sourcing about 95 per cent abroad, while it is self-sufficient in aluminium. He also expressed confidence that rare earth programmes could bring the country close to self-reliance in two to three years and that GDP growth could top 7 per cent in FY27.

why it matters

For markets this is a lobbying view rather than a policy decision, so it carries limited immediate weight. Still, it signals ongoing interest in cutting India's oil and gas imports, a theme relevant to global crude demand and to copper supply, where the country's near-total reliance on foreign metal stands out.

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