April 26, 2026

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BEHIND INDIA'S ENERGY INSECURITY

BARELY EIGHT YEARS after Edwin L. Drake drilled the world's first oil well in 1859 at Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA, in 1867, India discovered oil in Digboi, Assam. The find was serendipitous--workers noted that elephants put to work by the London-registered Assam Railways and Trading Company had their feet covered with oil. The men followed the trail to the `salt lick' to find India's first commercially viable oil reserve. Coincidentally, Drake had used the salt well drilling technique to dig 69.5 feet before hitting the black goldNearly 160 years later, the US is the world's biggest oil and gas producer, while India is an also-ran, living on imports. It has been able to explore only 30% of its available oil and gas resources, which meet around 12% of its crude oil and 50% of its domestic gas requirements. India's domestic oil production is around 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) as against a demand of 5.6 million bpdIndia has 26 sedimentary basins (see Indian Sedimentary Basin). Only 30% are under commercial production; most of these fall under the ageing category. About 23% of the reserves are discovered, but no commercial production has started there, while 47% are yet to be discovered. Exploration has been limited to Category I basins--Mumbai offshore, Assam, Rajasthan and Krishna Godavari. The Category II and III basins, including Mahanadi, Andaman Sea Bengal, and Kerala-Konkan, are largely unexplored. These have 22 billion barrels of hydrocarbon potential, says S&P Global Commodity InsightsThe costs--of not drilling enough--can pile

BANKING ON MISTRY

KEKI MISTRY, WHO stepped down as Vice Chairman and CEO of Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) following its merger with HDFC Bank two years ago, has been hoisted back into the hot seat at the country's most valued lender following the sudden resignation of part-time chairman Atanu Chakraborty. | Mistry, as interim chairman, will have to restore confidence among shareholders, accountholders and the financial market community. Chakraborty's resignation letter had cited differences over values and ethics. "Certain happenings and practices within the bank, that I have observed over last two years, are not in congruence with my personal values and ethics. This is the basis of my aforementioned decision," he wrote in his resignation letter, disclosed by the bank in a late stock exchange filing on March 18. He said there were no other material reasons for his decision"Given the specific context of a bank, that too India's largest private sector bank, these words carry weight. Banks are by nature opaque and leveraged. The nearautomatic instinct to assume the worst is understandable," says Santanu Chakrabarti, Director and Head of Research for Banking and Financial Services at BNP Paribas Securities IndiaAt the March 18 board meeting where Chakraborty quit, some members tried to persuade him to elaborate his concerns or change some of the language of his resignation letter. After the meeting, two whole-time members and two independent directors headed to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to inform the regulator of the developments. Given that HDFC is one of several systemically important banks, RBI acted swiftly; Mistry was appointed for three monthsThe banking industry runs on trust. When the chairman of the country's top private bank quits over values and ethics, it's bound to shake investor confidence. The swift appointment of veteran banker Mistry and the board's unequivocal backing of the lender's governance practices got a thumbsup from analysts but failed to calm investors. Since March 18, HDFC Bank shares have slumped 13% (as on March 30), underperforming the NSE Nifty 50, which has fallen 5.4%, and the Bank Nifty, down 9%The management, including the directors, say Chakraborty did not point out anything specific. "In an institution as large as the bank, small issues keep cropping up, but there is nothing substantive enough to understand why Chakraborty resigned and issued the letter," Mistry said, trying to assure stakeholders that governance is the most important priority for the HDFC Group. "There was no clarity from the chairman. If you are saying things as serious as lack of ethics, you have to give specific instances. That's the disconnect," says a senior banking industry executiveThere have been murmurs of differences between the chair-