Commentary: India’s gas shortage will make dal compete with data

Policymakers must view this as more than a temporary blip; it is a crisis that may permanently shift how the world’s most-populous nation consumes energy. Assuming 10 per cent of households switch to electric and 70 per cent cook dinner simultaneously, the extra 28-gigawatt demand equals nearly a tenth of the summer peak load. They want to lower the cost of AI tokens by tapping India’s solar power, but New Delhi must prioritise human welfare over artificial intelligence.