Energy crisis caused by Russia-Ukraine war

- Management-Dhawal Mehta

- India has also been badly affected by the global energy crisis. India's inflation rate has remained consistently above 6 percent for the past nine months due to the energy crisis

In the last fifty years, energy crises have occurred repeatedly in the world like the cycle of cycles. The current energy crisis has arisen in the markets of crude oil (petrol-diesel etc.), fuel gas and electricity generation and distribution. UK, Germany and China have been worst affected by this crisis. Germany is so dependent on Russia's gas that Russia has stopped supplying gas to Germany in July 2022 in retaliation for Russia's gas (which is delivered to Germany through a pipeline), so the people of Germany will freeze to death on cold days. As Russia cut off gas supply not only to Germany but to Europe again in September, the coming winter will be very hard for many European countries. Fearing the energy crisis created by Russia, European countries have now started efforts to become self-sufficient in the energy sector. Therefore, instead of gas, the field of solar energy, wind energy, water energy and lastly, even though alarmingly, nuclear energy will grow tremendously around the world. India has also started a major effort in this direction and has decided to provide major facilities to the solar energy sector. In particular, we forget that an important source of energy is natural gas, and its scarcity or excessively high prices will reduce the production of chemical fertilizers (the only input of which is natural gas) and pesticides, and these two products that are extremely important to agriculture. will damage the agricultural sector of the world. Due to scarcity or high prices of natural gas and crude oil, the use of coal in power generation has increased and we all know how much coal smoke is harmful to human health. This smoke does as much harm to you as if you were smoking several cigarettes a day. Scientific research has proved it.

Many countries of the world have imposed restrictions on Russian oil and natural gas, these restrictions are known as 'sanctions', due to which crude oil petrol prices have skyrocketed. Right now it has gone down a bit but wouldn't be surprised if it goes back above $110 again. One thing to note in all this is that until now coal-fired power generation in many countries was stopped by the government, all of them are gradually recovering and the stopped coal-fired power generation is gaining momentum again. China, the world's second largest economic power, is currently experiencing a severe shortage of fuel oil. America will be in trouble because America has an inexhaustible supply of mineral oil and gas stored in its wells. Britain, which once ruled America, is now sitting with its mouth open against America for petrol-diesel-gas that Russia is helping China to save it from its troubles. During the first six months of 2022, China bought 19 billion dollars of gas and coal from Russia, which is twice the purchase of these goods in the first six months of 2021. China is really caught in the oil crisis, China's economic growth rate has slowed down. Back then, China announced such a strict lockdown due to Covid that China's production fell. Lockdown in China was like a curfew on all people. According to a report, China is indiscriminately importing whatever Russia can send or can send from Russia through pipelines and from Chinese ports on the Pacific Ocean.

Energy crisis in India

India has also been badly affected by the global energy crisis. Due to the energy crisis, India's inflation rate has been consistently above 6 percent for the past nine months. So the government has sought an explanation from the Reserve Bank. Power generation in many states in India is still coal-fired. In India, power plants in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Kerala have faced severe shortage of coal, so the government has 'diverted' coal supplied to industries to power plants. India has huge imports of liquid gas, crude oil and coal from Russia. The amount which has now reached five billion dollars. Remember that India's current energy crisis has sent the prices of fuel and other commodities skyrocketing.

Government of India now has to give top priority to solar energy instead of temple building and statue building and primary education instead of higher education, India's opposition parties are giving the issue of price hike and especially the issue of edible oil prices as much as a hungry man can get.

Blockade not ditching

The central and state governments of India have to accept the challenge of filling the four potholes. (1) Issue of road potholes in monsoon. (2) The issue of pitfalls in people's stomachs due to high prices. (3) The issue of gap between the revenue and expenditure of the government i.e. the issue of deficit finance. (4) Primary point: Seeing the school building and other facilities, we feel ashamed. People are looking at the holes in the walls and roofs of the school buildings as well as the lack of adequate number of education. At the root of all these questions is energy.