Viketo Nihokhe Sumi
Dimapur
I cannot affirm nor disprove that it's not a rip off in colossal scale by the oil industry magnets because they can see the demise of their era in the near horizon. Nevertheless, altogether I find it suspicious and I am skeptic enough to let all numerous Naga entrepreneurs, who have recently invested healthy amount of money into petroleum retail outlets, know to be on their toes for the forthcoming years.
Okay, let's pause and flashback a decade or even half-a-decade and examine how often and how many new Petrol Pump Depots' were sanctioned in Dimapur or furthermore, other districts in Nagaland. There were very few and infact you never fail to notice new established pumps since approval of new licenses for fossil fuels stations was virtually non-existent.
In addition, from the very limited new licensing passed, it had a rigorous reservations and required excessive qualifications from the interested applicants inorder to award new licences. And because of numerous requirements, not every citizen was qualified to apply even if one was financially well-off. These retail outlets were mostly reserved for patriotic families who were bereft of individuals who lived by patriotism. For instance, a widow or the children of an army officer who died in the service for motherland; or a deceased central bureaucratic officers families who had lost their sole bread winner to death. The approval of new licences was mainly reserved for suchlike bereaved families. Women entrepreneurs were also focused inorder to promote equality among sexes.
Also, in the past, inorder to create new retail outlets, corporate had to conduct surveys of nearby factories and number of automobiles and lorries run on fossil fuels in the destined area inorder to know if it is feasible to establish new retail outlets. There was no reason to approve new outlets if there was lack of enough automobiles run on fossil to make a profit/or for that matter, factories and large establishments run on fossil fuels. It made no justification to the corporate to add new retail outlets by investing lakh on equipments if their survey depicts that the present lone BOC running in such area is adequate. It didn't consider the plight of people living in remote areas who had to travel tens of kilometres to fill their tanks. All it mattered to the Oil Tycoons were 'if it'd bring larger profit should they establish a new BOC'.
So I'd like you to question why attaining a petroleum retail outlet license has become lenient? Why have many of the citizens who possess lucrative estates, where there are prospect of marketing petroleum products given licences away? I don't mean to imply that every qualified individuals who apply are successful, but I'd merely like you to hypothesize why the approval of new licences have increased in multiples.
I can understand that the number of new sedans and SUVs, mini trucks, lorries and buses has increased enormously but their sum of overall numbers are not equivalent to the numbers of new BOCs' ratios. And there has hardly been any new factories established that run on petroleum products as alternative energy.
The best cause I can reason is because the days for fossil fuels dominating our life as a major source of energy for our motor vehicles, which holds the dominant category for petroleum's market, is rapidly approaching for a precipice. I can only assume that it is the last hurrah for the oil magnets to make one last huge profit before their dominance become obsolete. Only that their last eventual gain would come from the unsuspecting new investors.
It's legitimate for the Petroleum Magnets to be paranoid. Motor vehicles dominate when it comes to consumption of fossil energy' market. So it is sane for oil Tycoons to be creative and amass stakes of profits before the window closes.
Everyday, we are witnessing more of how cellular powered motor vehicles are encroaching into the share of petroleum fuelled vehicles. It is becoming impossible for oil magnets all over the world to flex their strength and use their wealth to influence the government to create road blocks for cellular powered vehicles. They have been successful in former times but such tasks have become excessively daunting since Internet has taken hold of our lives.
Giant Automobile Makers such as Tata and Hyundai have immensely made an impact by the hugh numbers of sold EV (Electric Vehicles) and gained astounding number of positive feedbacks in Indian Market. Tata's Nexon EV and Tigor EV and Hyundai's Kona Electric has indeed received total approval from the majority of Indians. It not only exhibit premium features like its sisters run on fossil fuels but its driving ranges are all above 300 Kilometres backed by ultra fast charging technology. And EVs are environment-friendly. On top of these EV vehicles, arrays of new and more promising EV vehicles are near completion.
In our fast paced technological era, there is constant races going on amongst developers and inventors, backed by private corporations and investors, of who can produce a smaller batteries yet more powerful and more durable, to dominate energy economy. So far, we have all witnessed how far they have reached in the past couple of years. When you look at old traditional source of fossil fuels from the perspective on this new source of energy's enthusiasts, relying on petroleum products has become almost obsolete.
I can bet my bottom Dollars that in 4 to 6 years, the number of electric vehicle' number will surpass the number of vehicles running on fossil fuels. This may be hard to digest, fellows, but lets flash back to recent instances how swiftly cellular phones overthrew landline telephones by storm; how wireless transmission of television programmes have fully extinguished cable wires from house-to-houses and room-to-rooms. These instances didn't even take a decade. So, at the present speed technology is advancing, converting the whole fleets of motor vehicles to run on cellular power would take lesser span than how long cellphones took to overthrow landline phones.
I despise to see common people taken advantage of by corporate raiders; Multi millionaires, with no empathy, becoming billionaires from the miseries of the innocents. As long as the sufferings they cause is not to someone near and dear, "nothing else matter" is their attitude. They are immune to sufferings their actions entail to unknown people far and wide. They do believe that a bankrupt small time investors deserves to be suffered as they were impatient enough to be duped by signing away their hard-earned wealth in exchange for assured profits in fairy dusts. I remember some of the wealthy elite Indian Industrialists saying that 'the poor were poor because they are lazy'. How inconsiderate of them!
The only gem I can provide to the newly established BOCs' entrepreneurs is to be the first to incorporate a charging center for electric vehicles before the masses, and henceforth, be able to run charging center along with fossil fuels' outlets. That is as early as you catch a whiff of proposals being put forward to the Lower House. It definitely pays to be the first in line, like the early birds catch the worms.
Before I conclude, I'd also like to inform you that, at present, there are 10 (ten) major Corporations involved in oil and gas sector (i.e. the sum of corporates involved in domestic as well as beyond). So if you are a critic, you might question if its only a competition amongst the ten major oil companies inorder to outreach every corners and dominate oil industry. But I highly doubt that because the same hyper-rich investors don't buy shares from a single entity. They are shrewd enough to buy a major shareholders in every single one of the 10 oil companies there is in India. That's the reason why I reject that its a normal market mechanism. It is no longer a consternation to witness the same major shareholder present in every Corporation's shareholders conventions. Its despicable but when it comes down to setting major expeditions for these corporates, the outcome is often determined by these same shareholders.
I'm directing this article mainly for those entrepreneurs who have recently established BOCs in outskirt areas where traffic movement is low and it would take almost a decade to recuperate the total principle and interests before beginning to gain a profit. BOCs are no longer a lifetime investment.
