Good news and bad for India

India is taking two steps forward, one back in its quest for energy independence

The discovery in September of two new fields by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) marks a step forward in the country's problematic strategy of energy independence, just as it faces up to the high cost of renewed sanctions against Iran. The finds—in Madhya Pradesh's Vindhyan block in central India and at Ashoknagar in West Bengal, eastern India—could bring the total of producing sedimentary basins in the country to eight. These latest discoveries follow one made by ONGC in early 2018, in the Gulf of Kutch off the West Coast that's due to start pumping oil around 2020. Even better for the country's drive for energy independence, ONGC estimates that the Kutch field could hold 1 trillion