India Raises Domestic LPG Price by ₹29, Second Hike Since March 2026

India has been here before: during the 1973–74 oil shock and again in August 1990 after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, sudden spikes in West Asian crude forced emergency price hikes and balance-of-payments fixes. The current ₹29 bump sits at the intersection of three long arcs: (1) India’s slow retreat from blanket LPG subsidies that began in 2013 and accelerated after the 2014 DBT (direct benefit transfer) reforms; (2) chronic import dependence—over 55 % of LPG is imported—tying household energy costs to every flare-up from Hormuz to Gaza; and (3) the political cycle in which price controls tend to loosen once elections pass, a pattern seen after the 2019 and 2024 polls as well. On a 100-year horizon the episode is a footnote, yet it underscores a strategic vulnerability: without domestic gas production or rapid transition to electric or biogas cooking, two generations of Indians could remain exposed to external shocks that started with coal in the Raj era and now echo through every kitchen cylinder. If West Asian volatility becomes the norm rather than the exception, today’s modest ₹29 hike may be remembered less for its quantum than for hastening the shift of households and industries toward alternative fuels and diversified supply chains.