With the West Asia crisis and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz putting pressure on energy supplies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (May 21) asked the Council of Ministers to urgently explore alternative energy sources, including a stronger push for biogas as a substitute for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cooking gas. The directive came during a three-and-a-half-hour ministerial meeting held soon after he returned from his tour of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and four European countries, where the conflict in West Asia and its wider fallout figured prominently in discussions.