ONGC is in the news today and the stock price has risen almost 3% to Rs.169, with a 4 times rise in volume. Its 52-week high stands at Rs.212 and low at Rs.155.30.

Launching the Rs.16,000 crore “Saubhagya” scheme aimed at providing free electricity to 4 crore households by 2018 Prime Minister Modi threw a gauntlet at ONGC, asking it to take up the challenge of developing an energy efficient electric cooking stove.

Addressing officers and staff of ONGC at the inauguration of the firm’s new corporate office Modi asked ONGC to work towards making an efficient electric chulha (stove), which would enable cooking through the use of electricity. The prime minister said this innovation would, in one stroke, significantly impact the nation’s dependence on imported fuel.

Meanwhile, the new Rs.600 crore corporate office which the PM inaugurated in Delhi yesterday,  is a “green building” as it is built to consume almost half of the energy consumed by normal office spaces per square feet and uses 36 percent less water per capita than normal commercial buildings. ONGC claims that little above 76.5% of the occupied building space is lit by sunlight.