India embraces gas and renewables

With prime minister Narendra Modi now less than a year away from a general election, his energy successes and failures will be in the spotlight

India has just passed a milestone in its natural gas development. In fiscal year 2018, which ended on 31 March, liquefied natural gas provided more than half of all the gas the nation consumed, for the first time. It is a success in that prime minister Narendra Modi and his petroleum and natural gas minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, have been promoting the concept of India becoming a gas-based economy. Imports will play a crucial role if that is to happen. India has struggled to develop pipeline imports and so is becoming increasingly dependent on LNG. There is a long way to go: the share of gas in primary energy supply is just 6.5%. It is a failure in that India's own gas production has been on