Oil not a worry in 2024
A well-supplied oil market, along with new investments in oil exploration and production means that pending a major disaster, India will not have to worry about oil prices in the coming year.
A well-supplied oil market, along with new investments in oil exploration and production means that pending a major disaster, India will not have to worry about oil prices in the coming year.
India and Sri Lanka recently signed six energy agreements, including plans for an oil pipeline from India to Sri Lanka, electricity grid connectivity, and cooperation in renewable energy. Sri Lanka can benefit from India's cost-effective oil sourcing and processing and pay for it in rupees, easing its balance of payments crisis. Its wider use of the Rupee fulfills a long term objective for Indian policymakers.
China-centric global supply chains are being disrupted by rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China and multiple global shocks, forcing multinational companies to rethink are global sourcing strategies. India can leverage this moment to become a complementary manufacturing hub in Asia by reaping gains from technology transfers and creating value-adding jobs.
On July 21, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe is set to visit for the first time since taking office. India has already provided $5 billion in economic assistance to Sri Lanka, and is now looking to expand its investment in the nation. Sri Lanka is also seeing interest from Indian private investment. The visit presents an opportunity for the two countries extend this relationship in new areas of cooperation, especially energy, infrastructure, and tourism.
On July 13, the German cabinet approved its Strategy on China after nearly two years of internal discussions. The new strategy simultaneously views China as a “partner, competitor, and systemic rival”, calling for de-risking German economic dependence on China, while also expanding cooperation with other countries in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has led to the resurgence of interest in Central Asian as an alternate trade corridor between Europe and Asia. Timely investment in connectivity projects like the Middle Corridor and the INSTC by regional stakeholders, as well as by the EU, China and India, must now build on this interest to create new regional, international, and cross-continental transport corridors.
Supply chains are central to the new chapter of India-U.S. relations. Simultaneously, China-centric global supply chains, which underpinned East Asia’s prosperity, are changing as multinationals re-assess risks in the post-Covid era. Is the shift to India and the rest of South Asia occurring? This paper finds that South Asia supply chain pessimism could be changing, and India can spread gains through regionalising supply chains in its neighbourhood.
Despite its natural advantages, the Bay of Bengal region lags economically, in part due to insufficient connectivity between the member nations. Improving financial connectivity between them is the first step to easing movement of goods, services and people. Greater financial collaboration also can help the region mitigate the impact of ongoing geopolitical upheavals that have caused food and energy prices to rise.
The focus on climate finance must take into account the high cost of debt, foreign exchange risk and weak public energy utilities in the developing economies. A creative and workable solution to all these issues is to establish a Global Climate Finance Agency, managed by a reputed multilateral agency with some of the capital support promised by the developed countries.
Gateway House’s G20 Task Force Report on Energy Transitions and Climate Finance analyses the geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges, and proposes recommendations, for green transition among the G20 countries. Task Force co-chair Nadir Godrej, Chairman and Managing Director, Godrej Industries, and Amit Bhandari, Senior Fellow, Energy, Connectivity and Investment, Gateway House discuss the report’s recommendations on climate finance, green transition, affordable access, and energy security on CNBC-TV18 with Parikshit Luthra.