India, Aug. 31 -- When the Strait of Hormuz closed on February 28, 2026, the world expected India to buckle. It did not. A supplier base painstakingly widened from twenty-seven countries to forty-one was called upon all at once, and it held. Pumps stayed open, cylinders kept arriving, and retail fuel prices rose just over four per cent even as comparable economies absorbed double-digit increases. The International Energy Agency called it one of the largest supply disruptions in the oil market's history. India came through with its economy running and its people supplied, a genuine achievement of foresight, refining flexibility and diplomatic bandwidth.

The episode brought into focus a question India could no longer defer. Import diversif...