Summaries by Vijay L. Kelkar

India's Samudra Manthan scheme seeks to boost hydrocarbon exploration, addressing key gaps. While its intent is good, the proposal to reimburse up to half the cost of exploration wells is critically reviewed. The author argues effective fiscal regimes should allocate geological and commercial risk based on project economics, not gross revenue. India's current revenue-sharing model, and this subsidy, socialize risk rather than pricing it. A shift to well-designed cost-recovery contracts, like global best practices, would better incentivize exploration by aligning the state's fiscal claims with true economic rent, enhancing basin attractiveness. Success hinges on fiscal architecture reform.