Oil price, Moody's improved outlook, low interest rates: Tough call for RBI

While the share of oil in India's import basket is as much as 22.5% currently, a falling rupee could fuel inflation and take the steam out of low interest rates

Petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri cannot be faulted if he has set the number of Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman Al Saud, Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia on his speed dial. Since July, when Puri took over the portfolio, he has spoken twice with the Kingdom. 

With the benchmark Brent crude price at over $82 a barrel, coming uncomfortably close to the century mark, Puri may need to pick up his phone for the third time. If he has some good news to share, it will be listened to eagerly by the Reserve Bank of India pundits,