The curious case of electrification in India amid power discom blackouts

Mumbai/New Delhi: In its 2014 election campaign, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised to bring development, and specifically electricity, to all of India’s villages and homes. However, by then, almost all of India’s villages (97%) already had an electricity connection, according to data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). This left the BJP-led National Democratic […]

Cabinet offers relief to struggling power firms

NEW DELHI: New Delhi: The union cabinet has allowed power producers, saddled with ₹36,000 crore of unpaid dues, to end supply contracts with defaulting power distribution companies (discoms), as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, in possibly its last cabinet meeting, addressed a pressing concern for the industry. On Thursday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs […]

Continuing financial logjam at discoms casts a shadow on electricity producers

While the government may have succeeded in improving the availability of electricity in India, the lack of focus on other areas, such as distribution losses and timely payments, can delay the revival of the power sector. The aggregate technical and commercial losses (AT&C), which reflects transmission and collection efficiency, stood at 19.72% of electricity purchases, […]