The ongoing crisis in West Asia has exposed India’s vulnerability as the world’s third largest consumer of crude oil, importing nearly 89 per cent of its requirement i.e. around 1.75 billion barrels a year or 4.8 million barrels every day. Over 60 per cent of that flows through the geopolitically sensitive Strait of Hormuz.

In 2024-25, India’s crude oil import bill was $137 billion. If prices stay at the March average of $113.57 then the import bill would balloon to nearly $200 billion. Every $10 rise in the price of a barrel of crude adds $14 to $16 billion to India’s import bill. That is money drained from our precious foreign exchange reserves.

There is, however, a way to reduce this vulnerability.

India is gifted with a geographical location that brings blazing sunshine for more than 300 days a year. Summer heat can also be a curse — especially for the most vulnerable. April saw India at the epicentre of a global heat surge, with AQI.in reporting that 19 of the 20 hottest locations in the world were located in India, as well as 95 of the 100 hot-test cities globally. But this climate burden is simultaneously an energy opportunity of historic proportions.

India leads the International Solar Alliance, a coalition of over 120 sunshine-rich nations. In 2025, India added 38 gigawatts of new solar capacity, surpassing the United States, which added 35 gigawatts. Total installed solar capacity now stands at over 150 gigawatts, and annual solar generation has rocketed from 3.4 terawatt-hours in 2013-14 to 144 terawatt-hours in 2024-25.

On 25 April, as the brutal heatwave pushed temperatures into the mid-forties and air conditioners across north India ran at........

© National Herald