Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on September 6 urged the public sector undertakings to create startup funds on the lines of private sector in order to promote innovation and nurture new ideas in the energy sector.

Pradhan while addressing a conference on methanol economy organised by NITI Aayog said, “I am advising my CEO friends in PSUs that if Ratan Tata can put his private funds for startups and if Narayana Murthy can do that for new startups then why cannot you (do that),”.

“ONGC has already offered Rs 100 crore for startups. Can we create a synergy in innovation and this kind of startup fund. This can be a win win situation for all of us. Let us create a platform for our young Indians and scientific brains,” he said. On moving to methanol-based economy, he said, it is a ready-made case of proven technology. A methanol-based economy can create a lot of employment and entrepreneurship.

On this occasion, NITI Aayog signed a Statement of Intent with the Methanol Institute of the US to further work on the technology. “The raw material (for producing methanol) should be coming from the Indian market. If we could monetise the agriculture waste and bio waste in urban areas to energy then there will be two benefits – Sizeable reduction of health expenditure and our economy can be multi-fold,” he said. He further said : ”How do we reduce our import dependency. My ministry is ready to offer Rs one lakh crore business to scientific community. Now India is importing Rs 4.5 lakh crore worth of hydrocarbons. Technology is there. Blending of 85 per cent of ethanol in transportation fuel is possible.” 

He also said that petroleum consumption is increasing in the country. “Last financial year, where the prediction of petroleum consumption was 7-8 per cent, the actual growth was 11 per cent. Petroleum need is growing in a bigger way. The rural India is emerging in a big way. Petrol consumption is increasing in hinterland of the country,” he added.

Mean while, Dharmendra Pradhan will lead a roadshow on September 9, offering international investors 625 million barrels of oil and gas resources for exploitation. As part of the government’s global industry outreach plan, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas along with Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) is organising an interactive meet cum roadshow on 9-10 September here.

Source: Millennium Post