On being asked, a top executive of an oil company has defended the action or non-action on the price front by arguing that decontrol means being able to change prices at a time of one's own choosing. While this can pass muster in a college debate, it is important to recognise the underlying political reality. Political dispensations in India change with the promise of change and some overt change does come about but at the end of the day, in substance, nothing seems to have changed. It seems despite the promise and deliverance of oil price deregulation, the reality is that when it comes to the crunch, the present government will not hesitate to dictate a commercial action or non-action on political grounds if it feels the stakes to be high. This is bound to create a dent in the solid support that Mr Modi commanded in the last general elections among supporters of reform. Leaders of India Inc. were prominent among them. There has indeed been a sense of disillusionment in business circles as the Modi government approaches its one-and-a- half-year mark that it is going rather slow in delivering along promised lines.
It is important to reiterate that consumption of fossil fuels should not be subsidised as much as renewable energy should be. Simultaneously, there is a need to raise the energy consumption level of the poorest (currently appallingly low) as that importantly impacts their level of well-being. In particular, urgent action needs to be taken so that poor women, mostly in rural areas, do not continue to cook with whatever will burn and consequently be afflicted by severe respiratory ailments from the smoke they have to per force inhale. This calls for targeting of subsidies, not their blanket distribution. In particular, the manufacture and sale of newly developed efficient cooking stoves using virtually any kind of biomass which have proved their mettle need to be facilitated as that will create enormous gains in terms of both equity and public health.