Stop Wasting Petrol !!

Hi folks, though most of my posts have had a hint of intended humour in them, in doing so I don’t intend to disregard some of the serious issues that we should address but we fail to, because of the common myth that they are not our concern.
The other day I happened to be part of a discussion on the so called failure of the Central Government to curb inflation. The problem with most people in India is that they believe - in a Democratic Nation - it is their birthright to criticise the Government without any factual or statistical knowledge. I once read somewhere a statement enunciated by Bal Gangadhar Tilak. It said, “Be true in your facts and be just in your criticism.” And the message struck home the moment I read it. If we abide by this rule of the thumb, a lot of our problems could be understood, if not solved, for understanding the problem is fundamental to its solution. Drifting back to the discussion, a lot of emphasis was reposed on the hike of petroleum products. People were blaming the Government for being incompetent and even claimed that the only solution was a change in the Government. I understood at once that people were choosing the easy way out, choosing to fix the blame rather than fixing the problem, for the simple reason that it required the least effort on their part. Speaking without thinking or foreknowledge is what some people are best at. However I chose to listen rather than speak, for my opinions were different and I wanted to do some research to find out the statistically accurate figures before concluding anything.
I had read in novels long ago that the world was facing a power crisis and the situation was bound to worsen over the years. The conventional resources of energy were waning away and only the nascence of a new source could bring about some respite. But I was not sure of the current state of things. Therefore, I did tad research and did some calculations, which a sixth grader can efficiently perform. I’ll show you the stepwise calculations.
Oil is internationally traded in New York and London and denominated in US Dollars only. Crude oil is distributed in barrels which hold 42 gallons of oil ( when converted into litres comes to about 159 litres per barrel). The petrol content of crude oil is about .48 litres per litre. Excise, taxes and raw material refining also add to the cost of petrol per litre.

Cost of a 159 litre barrel of crude oil (as on 3rd July) : US $145
1 US Dollar = 42.975 Indian Rupees ( as on 11th July )

Cost of a 159 litre barrel of crude oil in Rupees : 145 x 42.975 = Rs. 6231.375
Petrol content of a barrel : 159 x .48 = 76.32 litres

Cost of 1 litre petrol = 6231.375 / 76.32 = Rs. 81.65

Taxes, refining costs and transport etc. amount to about another 10 rupees per litre

Therefore, the effective cost of petrol per litre is about Rs. 92

I hope nobody had any problem understanding my calculation. As it is evident, our country gets petrol at Rs. 92 per litre and we get it at say Rs.54 per litre. Obviously the Government is incurring a huge loss by paying a subsidy of about Rs. 38 per litre. And we blame the Government for not being able to control inflation.
What we do is misuse petrol and put more and more pressure on our Government by increasing the loss incurred by it. We cause our nation to be poor and put the blame on our economic policies.
This is just one chapter of the whole story. This is just about oil. There are various other fronts where we are weakening our nation, with our not-my-business and I-don’t-care attitudes. If we make efforts to understand the root of our problems, we might be able to actually contribute to the solution of them