India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) needs to grow at the rate of 10% every year for the next 40 years to reach it’s full potential. How can we achieve that without having surplus power? Dr Pramod Deo, Chairman of the CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission), said that given India’s huge electricity shortage, the share of the private sector in power generation needs to increase. According to the ‘Vision Statement’ in the ‘National Electricity Policy’, the installed capacity in India is 141,079 MW and must increase to 200,000 MW by 2012. The total investment required to achieve this increase is $224 billion. According to Dr Deo, this is nothing more than a ‘pipe dream’ for the politicians. We are nowhere close to achieving that target!
Energy has been universally recognized as one of the most important inputs for economic growth and human development. Yet, India has played politics with ‘National Energy Policy’. Starting with Pandit Nehru and his ‘Jat Friends’ in India’s ‘cow belt’ to Indira Gandhi and then Chaudhry Charan Singh, all were playing politics in the name of ‘Rural Electrification’. During the ‘British Rule’, the electricity was produced by the private sector and it’s distribution was confined to the ‘Urban Centers’ only. After independence, the need for increased food production forced the government to extend the electrical energy to the ‘Rural Sector’. Few private sector companies were in a position or were willing to increase the distribution to the ‘Farm Sector’. Public Sector participation was inevitable. But to undermine the ‘Private Sector’ in urban areas was nothing more than Indira Gandhi’s political pettiness. Today, energy distribution has become a national sport for the politicians around the country. They must be held accountable in the next general elections.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh plans to build 40,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity by 2020, equivalent to a third of current generation. According to the experts, India needs to add to the 3% of electricity that comes from Russian-designed reactors to meet soaring energy needs and reduce its reliance on coal-fired power plants. To me, this sounds far-fetched as the investment to install such nuclear power would be beyond our reach, both technically and more so, politically. Going by the current status of Indo-US nuclear deal with NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group), the European hypocrisy is beyond belief. In my opinion it is highly unlikely that India would win the NSG approval anytime soon! India is better off with the traditional route.
Filed under: Indian Politics Tagged: | British Rule, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, CERC, Chaudhry Charan Singh, Cow-belt, Dr Pramod Deo, Electricity Shortage, Farm Sector, GDP, Gross Domestic Product, Indira Gandhi, Indo-US Nuclear Deal, Jat Friends, National Electricity Policy, NSG, Nuclear Suppliers Group, Pandit Nehru, Pipe-dream, Power Generation, Private Sector, Public Sector, Rural Electrification, Rural Sector, Urban Centers, Vision Statement
