India Inc has backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's urgent call to save fuel costs and cut down on the usage of petroleum products amid the crude price spike due to the ongoing Middle East geopilitical tensions. PM Modi on Sunday urged Indians to judiciously use petrol and diesel, adopt work-from-home to cut down on daily travel, postpone gold purchases and foreign travel, among other measures, to strengthen the economy and battle the current global headwinds. The appeal comes as the surge in crude prices continues to rattle global markets and increase supply disruptions to major oil importers in Asia.
Bharti Enterprises founder and chairman Sunil Mittal backed PM Modi's appeal to cut gold purchases, reduce fuel consumption and the need to spend domestically. Speaking at CII Business Summit on Monday, Mittal acknowledged, "These are difficult times. We have been moving at fantastic times, but there are situations which are beyond our control. The issue in West Asia is creating a tremendous amount of pressure on global economies. India is no different."
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Advocating a shift from oil, he said, "We need to get away from obsession with gold, move towards renewables and move away from oil." Mittal added, "We need to invest and spend more capex here. This is not a moment to shy away, this is a moment to double down."Speaking at an event in Telangana on Sunday, PM Modi also revived several Covid-era practices, including work-from-home arrangements, online meetings and virtual conferences, arguing that reducing fuel consumption would help conserve foreign exchange reserves and cushion the economy from the impact of higher crude prices.
TVS Motor Company Chairman Emeritus Venu Srinivasan also backed PM Modi's self-reliance push saying that India needs to strengthen its competitiveness in global markets as geopolitical tensions and rising import dependence put pressure on the economy. "To win the war for World markets, we have to develop products that are timely and are of high quality," Srinivasan said. Referring to India's dependence on imported energy, he said the country must work towards building a manufacturing trade surplus.
"Given the crisis we have, given that we import significant portion of our energy, high time we start producing manufacturing trade surplus," he said. Additionally, billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani also emphasised on the importance of supply chains, saying that they are being reorganised around national interests, and that they should remain open.
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Adani noted that the Middle East conflict and the targeted infrastructure attacks show energy security, digital security are twins foundation of national power, adding that, "a country that controls its energy will drive its industrial future, and a country that controls its compute will drive intelligence future."
"US and China have understood the importance of independence in energy and intelligence," he says. " Their systems may be different, their politics may be different, their institutions may be different, but their strategic objectives are the same." He pointed out China has further understood that AI leadership and sovereignity cannot depend on foreign chips, and that they are now focusing on being self-sustained.
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