Indians, Chinese pushing gas prices up: Obama

New York, May 15: US president, Barack Obama, who has often mentioned India and China in his speeches on various issues such as education and outsourcing, has now said that Indians and Chinese buying more vehicles are pushing up the gas prices.

Advising Americans to take the public transport system to stay immune to the fuel price rise and as a step towards environment conservation, the president said, "Because one of the things, obviously, that we have to recognise is, is that no matter what we do, oil prices are going to be going up over the long term."

"You're not always clear what's going on, but the long-term trend is just because countries like China - they're starting to buy cars and countries like India are starting to buy cars, and so the demand on petroleum and fossil fuels are going to be greater and greater," he added while speaking at a rally in Buffalo, New York on Thursday, May 13.

Interestingly, the auto-loving Americans have 950 cars per thousand people while every thousand Indians have 8.5 cars.

"We've got to get a first-class transit system. We don't have one right now. We used to be at the top. Now you've got China - they're building multiple high-speed rail lines all across the country, leaving us behind," Obama said.

The US president has a reputation of mentioning Asian giants, India and China, in most of his speeches.

Besides the infamous 'Bangalore to Buffalo' direction to outsourcers, Obama had earlier told young Americans to study hard and put up a stiff competition against Indians.

OneIndia News