Acting on his own appeal to deal with the oil crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday reduced the number of vehicles in his convoy by 80 percent. Now only two vehicles will run in the Prime Minister’s convoy. He himself will be in one, the security personnel will be in the other.
Earlier, there used to be at least 12 to 15 vehicles in the convoy of the Prime Minister. There was a car for the Prime Minister, there was an identical Decoy Vehicle, that is, another car similar to the Prime Minister’s car, there was an armored SUV, there was an Electronic Counter Measures Vehicle, which was fitted with jammers, which could foil the explosives. Apart from this, a total of 12 to 15 vehicles including security, Advance Security Liaison, ambulance used to be in the Prime Minister’s convoy, but now most of the vehicles have been removed.
The size of Home Minister Amit Shah’s convoy has also been reduced. Now there will be only four or five vehicles in Amit Shah’s convoy, whereas earlier there used to be more than ten vehicles in the convoy. Amit Shah has Z Plus security cover but he has asked the security agencies to use as few vehicles as possible. The convoys of most of the ministers including Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan have also become smaller.
Chief Ministers and ministers of BJP ruled states also halved the number of vehicles in their convoy. Most of the BJP ruled state governments including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi also started measures to save petrol and diesel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a good message by reducing the number of vehicles in his convoy. The ministers and chief ministers of his government have also reduced their convoys.
When expenditure reduction starts at the highest level, the public gets encouragement, common people also contribute in saving fuel. Our country is so big. If people are determined, the consumption of petrol and diesel can be significantly reduced and the foreign exchange spent on it can be saved. Similarly, there is a need to save the foreign exchange spent on PNG and LNG. The government has taken a big decision in this direction. On Wednesday, the Central Government approved the ‘Coal Gasification’ scheme. This is a technology in which coal is converted into gas. Coal is heated at high temperatures in a high pressure chamber. This converts coal into gas. It is called syngas. Syngas i.e. SNG
SNG is, in a way, an alternative to PNG and LNG. Under the Coal Gasification Scheme, a target has been set to gasify 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav says that India has coal reserves that are useful for 200 years. The government will spend Rs 37 thousand 500 crore for this project. If gas is made from coal then lakhs of crores of rupees of foreign exchange will be saved every year. At present, India imports more than 50 percent of its requirement of LNG, about 20 percent of urea, 80 to 90 percent of methanol and 100 percent of ammonia from abroad.
The four things that Prime Minister Modi has emphasized for saving energy and foreign exchange are crude oil, gold, edible oil and fertilizers. India’s import bill in 2025-26 was 775 billion dollars, out of which about 250 billion dollars were spent only on these four things. 138 billion dollars i.e. about 1.25 lakh crore rupees were spent on importing crude oil.
72 billion dollars i.e. about 70 thousand crore rupees were spent on the import of gold. About $19 billion was spent on the import of edible oil and $15 billion was spent on the import of fertilizers. Among these four things, crude oil, edible oil and fertilizer have been kept in the essential category, but in the case of gold, Prime Minister Modi has appealed to the people not to buy gold for a year.
To discourage the purchase of gold and silver, the government on Wednesday increased the import duty on these two items from 6 percent to 15 percent. In our country, 700 to 800 metric tons of gold is consumed every year. We import 90 to 95 percent of it from abroad. If after the Prime Minister’s appeal there is a 30 to 40 percent decline in gold consumption, then we can save foreign exchange worth 20 to 25 billion dollars in a year. This money can be used to buy other essential items like oil, gas and fertilizers. (Rajat Sharma)
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SK Sharma is a content writer who writes on news, entertainment, and lifestyle topics. She has over four years of experience and is known for conveying information in simple and clear language.
