India, March 11 -- India's Natural Gas (Supply Regulation) Order, 2026, as the government's first formal response to the Gulf energy disruption, established an allocation framework to ration gas supplies. But it left a critical gap: food access of millions of migrant workers in Indian cities, many of whom depend on low-cost hotels, dhabas, and community eateries for daily meals.

With the collapse of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz - a route that carries roughly a fifth of the world's petroleum trade and a major share of LNG shipments - since the attack by US-Israel and retaliatory attacks by Iran, India, which imports over 85 per cent of its crude oil and a growing share of its LNG through Gulf routes, on March 10 invoked provision...