India, July 1 -- The true strength of an energy supply chain is not measured only by how much fuel it imports or how efficiently it refines crude. It is measured by something far less visible: whether every litre of petrol, every drop of diesel and every LPG cylinder reaches the citizen it is meant for. In a country as large and diverse as India, with over 90,000 fuel retail outlets, thousands of LPG distributorships and more than 33 crore domestic LPG consumers, maintaining this integrity is not merely a logistics challenge-it is a governance challenge.

Every supply chain creates opportunities for leakages. Diversion of diesel to industrial users, hoarding during periods of uncertainty, illegal decanting of LPG cylinders, duplicate dome...