OPINION: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the nation’s ambitions for a swift change to a gas-based economy when he told a packed conference hall at India Energy Week (IEW) in Bengaluru that the country is poised for a five-fold rise in gas consumption.

Modi outlined plans to scale up exploration aggressively, set up a pan-India gas pipeline network and massively increase liquefied natural gas regasification capacity in the country.

While India has earlier projected its gas consumption’s growth to rise up to threefold by end of this decade, Modi’s comments at IEW lacked real substance and did not define a clear timeframe.