India, April 15 -- The natural gas supply crisis stemming from the war in West Asia has underlined India's under-preparedness for such disruptions. Part of the blame lies with the inexcusable delays in rolling out the country's coal gasification programme - announced in 2020, it has seen little traction since, with its entire FY26 budget lying unspent till as late as January 2026. The benefits of coal gasification - conversion of solid coal into a gaseous fuel - are well known. It can lower import dependence for liquefied natural gas and lighten the country's import bill. A clutch of obvious environmental benefits also accrue - gasified coal emits significantly lower levels of nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide than solid coal, and though both emit comparable levels of carbon dioxide, it is easier to capture and store CO2 from gasified coal than from solid coal. There are some challenges that are particular to India. The high ash content of domestic coal makes it less suited for imported gasification technologies that typically use coal with ash levels less than a third of India's. And there are questions on the water conservation front, given the process uses large quantities of water. This calls for the development of technologies that can prove more efficient in terms of addressing the high ash levels and conserving water. Six years should have been enough to figure out solutions. Now, the fuel crisis has made it imperative for India to catch up; there are lessons in how China insulated itself to a degree by speeding up gasification. India has the fourth-largest coal reserve in the world; it is indefensible if technological failure and administrative lethargy further delay the gasification programme. If any push were needed, the war in West Asia has provided one....