Wastage as economic Opportunity for India

Cutting back on wastage in energy consumption can mean significant gains for the economy

- Kaustubh Verma Janmejaya Sinha

The chairman of ONGC, Arun Singh, and I were sitting in the Gaya airport lounge after addressing the IIM Bodh Gaya convocation in early April when I noticed some inefficiency at the airport and mentioned to him Kunal Shah's attention-grabbing comment about "inefficiency being the world's biggest employer". He smiled and offered another profound observation "India's biggest opportunity is curbing waste". He went on to say India and the world both need it and defended his argument with some telling statistics in the energy sector. This article is a result of his insight. In this era of tariffs, reciprocal tariffs, and punitive tariffs, our single biggest import item is oil. How much wastage is there in the use of oil, gas, and power?