Growth in demand for diesel, India's most consumed petroleum product, fell to its lowest since the pandemic in the financial year ended March 31 as the economy expands at a slower pace and consumption shifts to cleaner fuels. Diesel consumption rose 2 per cent to 91.4 million tonnes in 2024-25 (April 2024 to March 2025) fiscal, according to provisional data released by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Oil Ministry.
US strikes on Iran's three main nuclear facilities have once again raised concerns that Tehran might shut down the Strait of Hormuz - one of the world's most critical chokepoints, through which a fifth of global oil and gas supply flows.
The US has sanctioned an Indian national based in the United Arab Emirates and two India-based entities for operating as part of Iran's shadow fleet and involved in shipping Iranian oil. The US Department of the Treasury said Jugwinder Singh Brar, who owns multiple shipping companies, operates as part of Iran's shadow fleet, which the US said is used to evade sanctions and transport Iranian oil. Brar also owns or controls India-based shipping company Global Tankers Private Limited and petrochemical sales company B and P Solutions Private Limited. The sanctions come as part of a US campaign of maximum pressure on Iran and target the country's petroleum and petrochemical sectors.
India's purchase of US crude oil has picked up in 2025 and could easily double their previous levels, government officials said on Wednesday. The surge comes in the wake of the then-incoming Donald Trump administration's announcement that it would consider hiking tariffs on a reciprocal basis, and pushed some countries, especially those with large trade surpluses with the US, to buy more of its energy.
The Iran-Israel conflict has further increased global economic uncertainties, impacting world trade, including India's exports, as it is expected to drive up both air and sea freight rates, exporters say. They said that India's exports to Europe and counters like Russia may get impacted due to this war.
India's major imports from the US include crude oil and petroleum products, gold and jewellery, plastics, aircraft, and electrical machinery and components. The key exports to the US comprise pharmaceuticals and biologicals, telecom equipment, precious and semi-precious stones, petroleum products, gold and precious metal jewellery, and ready-made garments.
India's exports declined for the fourth month in a row in February to $36.91 billion due to volatility in petroleum prices and global uncertainties. The country's exports stood at $41.41 billion in the same month a year ago.
Puri said Pakistan was a country in "terminal decline" periodically using terrorism as an instrument of state policy.
The US remained India's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25 with bilateral trade valued at $131.84 billion, while the country's trade deficit with China widened to $99.2 billion during the same period, government data showed. In the last fiscal, India's exports to China contracted 14.5 per cent to $14.25 billion as against $16.66 billion in 2023-24. The imports, however, rose by 11.52 per cent in 2024-25 to $113.45 billion against $101.73 billion in 2023-24.
India's exports rose 9.03 per cent to $38.49 billion in April, the highest in six months, driven by healthy growth in sectors such as electronics and engineering goods, while the trade deficit widened to a five-month high of $26.42 billion. According to the commerce ministry data released on Thursday, imports increased by 19.12 per cent year-on-year to $64.91 billion in April due to a rise in shipments of crude oil and fertiliser.
The Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KPCB) is on high alert after a Liberian vessel carrying hazardous cargo sank off the Kerala coast. While no calcium carbide containers have washed ashore yet, a thin layer of oil spill has been detected. The KPCB is working to contain the spill and prevent it from reaching the shore, but rough conditions at sea have hampered efforts to spray dispersants. The board is also taking steps to prevent the oil from reaching the Ashtamudi and Vembanad lakes.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm, on Friday said ample stocks of petrol, diesel and cooking gas LPG are available in the country and there is no need for panic buying of fuel. The statement comes after social media was flooded with posts and videos showing people queuing at petrol pumps to stock fuel as tensions between India and Pakistan escalated.
These duties will come into force from April 9.
Amid the ongoing global tariff war, Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday said he is more worried about its impact on growth than inflation. Speaking to the media after presentation of the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current financial year, Malhotra said, RBI has reduced the growth forecast for 2025-26 by 20 basis points to 6.5 per cent.
An Indian official team is likely to visit Washington next week to iron out differences on certain issues before formally launching negotiations for the proposed India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA), an official said. The visit, which comes within weeks of a high-level US team visiting India, indicates that the talks for the BTA are gaining momentum.
The Trump trade shock is a chance to push long-overdue reforms, rather than tinker with tariffs to appease the US, suggests M Govinda Rao.
ONGC's overseas arm applied for a sanctions waiver to access $500 million dividend from two Venezuelan projects.
With India making it clear that the US doesn't have enough spare capacity for crude oil, Washington, DC, now wants India to sign fixed-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) contracts with American producers, multiple sources in the know said.
Jio Financial Services Ltd and Zomato Ltd will enter the National Stock Exchange's benchmark Nifty 50 index from March 28. As per the revisions, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) and Britannia Industries Ltd will be excluded from the index, according to a release from NSE Indices.
'The universe of PSU stocks is huge and diverse.' 'Investors should bet on specific sectors and stocks from the basket as most of them may continue to consolidate after years of outperformance.'
The Indian industry is paranoid about the USA's plan to impose reciprocal tariffs and wants early conclusion of a bilateral trade agreement, sources said on Wednesday. They said that the talks for the proposed bilateral trade agreement are going well.
The official said there are both challenges and opportunities for India as many of its competitor countries in exports, such as China Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Thailand, face higher duties.
For the first time, the government is likely to dip into the Oil Industry Development Fund (OIDF) to finance part of its fertiliser subsidy programme for 2025-26, according to official sources. The finance ministry has accounted for Rs 23,000 crore in the FY26 Budget as net additional resources to be drawn from dedicated reserve funds, including the OIDF, the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Fund, and the Universal Service Obligation Fund.
Senior officials of India and the US will begin three-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement in New Delhi on Wednesday amid threats of reciprocal tariffs from the Trump-administration, an official said. To formally start the negotiations on the pact, Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, along with a team of officials, is in New Delhi.
'Trump is good news for us. Energy poverty is real, and fossil fuels are the answer.'
Oil marketing companies (OMCs), paint manufacturers, tyre producers, and aviation stocks witnessed significant gains as Brent crude oil prices slipped below $70 per barrel. The price drop came after a double blow: The US imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico, including energy imports, and OPEC+ - the group of major oil-producing nations including Russia - announced an output increase of 138,000 barrels per day, the first such hike since 2022.
'CORSIA has set impossible targets. It tries to limit countries to the emission levels of the number of aircraft that they had in 2020. That has to be opposed.'
India's exports grew marginally by 0.7 per cent to $41.97 billion in March, while the trade deficit stood at $21.54 billion in the month, the latest government data showed on Tuesday.
India and the visiting US officials have decided to hold a wrap-up session on Saturday morning to conclude the three-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement, government sources said. They said the discussions are at a "very" early stage.
eclined for the third month in a row in January, falling by 2.38 per cent year-on-year to $36.43 billion, while the trade deficit widened to $22.99 billion in the month. Imports rose by 10.28 per cent year-on-year to $59.42 billion in January due to an increase gold shipments, according to the Commerce Ministry data. The trade deficit was $21.94 billion in December and $16.55 billion in January last year.
Here is a list of Q & As to explain these issues and implications of the US move.
India and the US have decided to hold sector-specific talks in the coming weeks to finalise the structure of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), the government said on Saturday. The engagement between the two countries came in the backdrop of the USA's threat to impose reciprocal tariffs on its key trading partners, including India, on April 2.
Dividends paid by central public-sector enterprises (CPSEs) in 2024-25 are set to be the highest ever, with the government receiving 69,873 crore so far. A government official said he was hopeful the receipts would touch 70,000 crore in the last week of the financial year.
After HPCL, the government headhunter struggled to find a suitable candidate for the top job at Bharat Petroleum, as most applicants were narrow specialists lacking multidisciplinary experience needed to run a large organisation. The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) last month interviewed a dozen candidates including BPCL director (finance) Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta and its director (refineries) S Khanna but found none suitable for the job of chairman and managing director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), according to a PESB order.
The 31st meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, held in December 2018, deferred a decision to reduce the GST rate for cement from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. This was despite recognising that cement - along with automobile parts - remained among the few mass-consumption items still taxed at the highest slab, which was originally meant for luxury and sin goods.
Shares of Oil marketing companies (OMCs) extended their gains for the fourth consecutive session on Thursday after crude oil prices plunged to six-month lows in the international markets, which boosted investor sentiments. Traders said the OMC stocks gained with crude oil prices hovering below $70 per barrel after OPEC-plus decision to increase output from April, a move which is expected to favour Indian refiners with added marketing margins on retail fuel.
Brokerages expect a further slowdown in Indian firms' revenue and earnings growth in Q4FY25, following low single-digit growth in the preceding three quarters, as factors like weak consumer demand and credit growth linger on.
Three men in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, received income tax notices demanding crores of rupees despite earning meager salaries, highlighting the growing issue of identity theft in India. The victims, who earn between Rs 8,500 and Rs 15,000 per month, were shocked to receive notices for Rs 33.88 crore, Rs 3.87 crore, and Rs 7.79 crore respectively. The authorities believe that businesses have been conducting large-scale transactions using forged Aadhaar and PAN cards in the names of these individuals.
The Delhi government will stop providing petrol to vehicles older than 15 years at fuel stations across the city after March 31, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa announced. The decision is part of the government's efforts to combat air pollution in the national capital. The meeting focused on key policy decisions, including restrictions on older vehicles, mandatory anti-smog measures, and the transition to electric public transport. The government will install gadgets at petrol pumps to identify vehicles older than 15 years, and no fuel will be provided to them.
Leading oil companies dedicated the second day of India Energy Week (IEW) 2025 to announcing strategic deals and business agreements across the supply chain - from sourcing more crude oil supply to deploying more domestic ships and building gas distribution capacity.
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