India’s crude oil import dependency hits record high, likely to rise further
India’s dependence on imported crude oil reached 88.2% in the first 11 months of the current financial year (FY25), surpassing last year’s levels and indicating a potential all-time high for the full fiscal year. Data from the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry shows an increase from 87.7% in the same period of FY24 and 87.8% for the entire FY24.
The rising dependency on imports is driven by growing energy demands across sectors, including transportation, petrochemicals, and aviation, while domestic crude oil production remains stagnant. India’s oil import reliance has steadily increased over the years, except for FY21, when COVID-19 slowed demand.
Government efforts to reduce import dependency, including policy reforms and incentives for domestic oil exploration, have had limited success. The Oilfield (Regulatory and Development) Amendment Bill, recent biofuel blending initiatives, and electric mobility promotion have yet to significantly curb petroleum demand growth.
India imported 219.9 million tonnes of crude oil between April and February, up from 213.4 million tonnes in the same period last year. Meanwhile, domestic oil production declined to 26.2 million tonnes from 26.9 million tonnes. With domestic crude oil covering only 11.8% of total petroleum product consumption, self-sufficiency remains low.
The country’s crude oil import bill for the April-February period stood at $124.7 billion, a nearly 3% increase year-on-year. As the world’s third-largest consumer and a key importer of crude oil,
India’s demand is expected to continue rising, with petroleum product consumption projected to grow by 4.7% in FY26, reaching 252.93 million tonnes. Refinery capacity is set to expand further, with the country’s current capacity standing at nearly 257 million tonnes per annum.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
