Page 56 - Policy Economic Report - Jan 2026

POLICY AND ECONOMIC REPORT
OIL & GAS MARKET

IEW 2026: Energy Data Must Anticipate Growth, Not Chase It, Says Shri Pankaj Jain at IEW 2026

Energy must be planned ahead of economic growth, or it risks becoming a binding constraint, said Shri
Pankaj Jain, Former Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Member Secretary, Eighth
Central Pay Commission, during a Leadership Spotlight Session on the third day of India Energy Week
2026. Speaking at the session “Empowering economic policy with energy data: steering India’s growth
towards Viksit Bharat 2047” on the Addition Stage, Pankaj Jain stressed the need for forward-looking,
data-driven policymaking.

“Energy cannot play catch-up. Energy has to anticipate. If we falter even once in planning energy for GDP
growth, it becomes a constraint,” he said, highlighting the risks of delayed capacity creation due to
fragmented decision-making.

Jain underlined that while India has vast datasets across sectors, energy data remains dispersed across
silos. He called for stronger integration of data on petroleum, power, coal and gas to support
macroeconomic forecasting, fiscal planning and infrastructure prioritisation. He also noted that accurate
energy data is critical not only for capacity planning but also for managing fiscal outcomes, incentives for
investment and long-term economic stability.

Shri Srikant Nagulapalli, Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, emphasised that India’s
energy needs are set to expand sharply as the country advances towards 2047. He added that
hydrocarbons will continue to play a critical role, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors such as fertilisers
and refining, even as renewables scale up. Given India’s high import dependence and long gestation
periods for domestic production, he said that timely, data-backed decisions are essential to ensure energy
preparedness and security.

From a market perspective, Ms Vandana Hari, Founder and CEO of Vanda Insights, highlighted the direct
linkage between global oil and gas prices and India’s macroeconomic indicators. She stressed the
importance of scenario-based planning, noting that price volatility makes probabilistic, data-led
approaches indispensable for policy planning.

Complementing the discussion, Shri Pradip Kumar Das, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian
Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited, highlighted India’s rapid expansion in renewable energy
and the role of finance in enabling scale. He highlighted the need to align data on intermittency, storage,
supply chains and emerging technologies to ensure that the energy transition remains reliable, affordable
and investment-ready.

IEW 2026: India’s Bioenergy Growth Can Outpace Overall Energy Demand, Says Secretary, MoPNG at
the Global Energy Conclave

India’s bioenergy sector has the potential to grow significantly faster than the country’s overall energy
demand and emerge as a key pillar of energy security, emissions reduction and rural development, said
Dr Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, on the third day of India Energy Week
2026 which is being held in Goa from 27th January to 30th January 2026.

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