This more-modest rate of decline in intensity should not be surprising, given the generally lower level of real oil prices that prevailed between 1985 and 2000. With real energy prices again on the rise, more rapid decreases in the intensity of use in the years ahead seem virtually inevitable.
Despite these differences our two countries have much in common, as the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, recalled 60 years ago at that historic Independence day assembly in 1947: “We think of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries…they are with us and will remain of us whatever may happen and we shall be sharers in their… fortune.” Mauritius is a part of the great Indian Diaspora, with enduring links to the motherland, from which more than half our population are derived, and who continue to cherish many of the cultural and religious traditions, and I am told, even cricket here, is now seeing some reviving interest.