US, March 10 -- The assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signals the most dramatic rupture in Iran's power structure since the upheaval of 1979. Yet for New Delhi, the tremor is not ideological-it is logistical, economic, and strategic. India's response is shaped less by rhetoric and more by arithmetic: oil cargoes in transit, the safety of millions of expatriates, the durability of trade routes, and the shifting geometry of West Asian power equations. In moments of global convulsion, India instinctively measures exposure before emotion.

Despite dramatic headlines, India is not staring at an immediate energy breakdown. The country's strategic petroleum reserves-located at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru, and Padur-stand at roughly 5.3 millio...