Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (May 16) has issued the most serious warning ever on the global economic situation. PM Modi, who reached The Hague in the Netherlands as part of the second leg of his five-nation European tour, said that the world is currently going through a decade of disasters. He cautioned that if the current global crises are not quickly controlled, the progress achieved over the past several decades in eradicating poverty could be completely destroyed.
Addressing the Indian diaspora in The Hague, the Prime Minister described several international crises, including wars and the ongoing energy emergency, as serious threats to the global economy. Referring to global developments, PM Modi said, “The world is grappling with new challenges. First the Corona pandemic came, then wars started and now the energy crisis has arisen. This decade is proving to be a decade of disasters for the world.”
He further warned, “If the current situation is not handled quickly, the achievements of the last several decades will be washed away and a very large section of the world’s population will be pushed back into poverty.”
This warning of the Prime Minister has come at a time when concerns are increasing in countries around the world including India about rising fuel prices, inflation and severe energy shortage. Just before leaving for Europe tour, PM Modi, during an event in Hyderabad, had appealed to Indians to voluntarily adopt austerity measures to ease the pressure on the economy. He urged citizens to take the following steps: Opt for work from home wherever possible. Limit unnecessary foreign trips and gold purchases. Use public transportation and carpooling to save fuel. Avoid use of excessive fertilizers in agriculture.
Calling saving fuel and foreign exchange an act of patriotism, the Prime Minister said, “We should try to use only as much as is required to save foreign exchange and mitigate the adverse effects of war crisis.”
This global crisis has now started affecting India’s domestic pocket as well. On Friday (May 15), government oil companies (IOC, BPCL, HPCL) increased the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 3 per liter. This is the first major price increase after a gap of almost four years. After this increase, petrol in Delhi has reached Rs 97.77 per liter and diesel has reached Rs 90.67 per liter.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party defended the decision, saying the Indian government protected consumers from the shock of the global oil crisis for more than two months and that public sector oil companies bore the burden of rising crude prices for nearly 76 days as tensions escalated in West Asia.
Opposition parties have criticized the timing of the fuel price hike and PM Modi’s appeal for austerity. The opposition alleges that oil prices were deliberately kept on hold due to important assembly elections in the state.
The current energy crisis has engulfed the whole of Asia. The Philippines has declared a national energy emergency, South Korea has advised citizens to take shorter showers and only charge phones during the day, while Japan has put its emergency oil reserves on the market.
The crisis deepened when Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil supply passes. India is extremely vulnerable to this crisis as India imports about 90% of its crude oil needs, and half of it comes through this route.
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