New Delhi, Aug. 4 -- The Samudra Manthan exploration policy framework announced by India's government offers a well-structured and realistic approach to improving the chances of finding oil and gas reserves in the country.

It comes none too early. The existing policy, which has been in force for a decade, has hardly yielded any significant commercial discoveries.

On the other hand, supply disruptions in the wake of the Gulf crisis have made it imperative to find domestic reserves. Since we import 90% of our oil and half our gas needs, the country's risk exposure is high.

To be sure, the Centre has been tweaking its exploration policy bit by bit, be it a review of old geological data, an increase in the area on offer for exploration or ...