I woke up this morning half in a dream, half in a daze, half in a delirium and completely freakishly sweating! Before you jump to any horrid obscene conclusion about the type of dream I was having (you pervert!), I was yet again the victim of an early-morning power cut that is just a part of another day here in India. Electricity in India is a scarce resource - hard to believe that a country so large would have a scarcity of resource, but yet it's true. This was recently brought into limelight by last month's complete grid failure of the northern (and following which the eastern, north-eastern and western) grid. Thanks to the delinked southern grid, I was spared the misery of several bouts of five-hour complete cut-offs (not just homes, but industries, trains, services, everything). Being tagged as the world's largest power failures (because of the region over which it impacted and the number of people it affected), I think there's a serious problem that is getting played out, and the gravity of which is soon going to become an insurmountable task (I hope not!).
This really never bothered me all these years that I lived in India because I grew to accept it as part of life in spite of that nagging feeling that this needs to be changed. But having spent a year in Europe (where I never experienced a power cut) I see how much we could achieve if we had something as little as 24x7 reliable power supply. While the country continues to grow (population, economy, corruption, etc.) the commensurate requirement of power that is needed is being hedged, adjusted (jugaad-ed) or co-generated by consumers since the electricity supply is just not there to meet the demand. And a large section of urban consumers depend on back-up stored power by way of inverters, diesel gensets, etc. But I wonder how much all of this will cushion us from the stark reality that we simply don't (and will not) have the power to meet the growing power deficit.
On a visit to a village in the hinterland of a fairly well-developed (progressive?) state in western India during my last job, I had the opportunity to interact with farmers of the village who said that their village was electrified (which means, there's a overhead low-tension power line that comes up to their village to supply electricity). But they received power for only 2-3 hours a day, mostly in the afternoons! So I guess at nightfall, they still used firewood, kerosene and oil lamps and what not else to prolong their days and complete their chores. And to think that more than 30% of the country is not "electrified" at all til today! If even the "electrified" don't actually get electricity, then when will the others ever see the "light"?
The numbers of electrification (the government agencies pride themselves by listing the number of villages/counties it has "electrified") haven't really gone through the roof over the years. And even if we have indeed managed to "electrify" more regions of the country, we haven't really commissioned many power plants that we have ready surplus power waiting to be dispatched to these places. Even with goals like "Electricity for all by 2012", the country has been faced with severe developmental issues with adding power generation capacities - every new power project that is planned gets either embroiled in a land acquisition scam (UMPPS, Solar and Wind plants), a resource allocation scam (Coalgate, Centre-AP gas), environmental clearance clause (Hydro), or a liability clause (Nuclear). Sometimes I think we'll never catch up and the economy will take a turn for the worse when we reach that particular threshold of "sustenance power generation capacity" needed to keep the country going. If we don't add capacity quickly (like China) and decisively (like China), leaving no option unexplored, we would soon be staring that threshold in the face. It may all seem like a tonne of bull, but then let's wait till the shit hits the fan and the fan hits the ceiling!
But to do something developmentally, like that quickly and decisively, we need a lot more "Shreedharans" (Delhi Metro man) in our bureaucracy who are able to get things done without compromising on quality of work, tax payers' money and ethics. I still look up to the IAS as a very respectable cadre of service, in spite of some the names of officers doing the rounds of scam-headlines these days. Why should a "few good men" pay the price of the largesse of many bad ones? And looking at some of the new IAS entrants, one is filled with hope and prospect that the younger generation's true Indian spirit of resilience to setbacks and aggression to succeed will take the cadre and the country forward.
So far, all electricity distributions companies in the country follow a strict schedule of demand side management, which involves supplying and cutting out power to different regions at different times of the day, based on the whether it's a week-day or a weekend, and the season. Over the morning as loads shift from residential districts to urban and industrial/commercial districts, supply to residential areas is cut out or minimised. And so on and so forth, different people bear the brunt of the power cuts at different times of the day. These are what are called as "scheduled outages". And very often (almost everyday even in big cities) one is a victim of "unscheduled outages" as was I this morning! And to top it all, I had to also look forward to the scheduled outage later during the day (for which I already had my reading and crosswords ready on hand; but this was not prepared for!!!!).
I can't wait to get back to Europe (for the uninterrupted power supply)! Well, I also can't wait to finish my studies and come back again to India. But then I'll have to be ready to face the power cuts again cause one year is not a long time for much to change (the one year I was gone, Delhi went from being a swanky and clean Commonwealth Games host city to a dusty, littered and rowdy Capital city again) - will I be better prepared? I could mentally prep up for the set-back, but will I be able to endure it? Really, will I? Oh right,... resilient and aggressive! Yep I will.
This really never bothered me all these years that I lived in India because I grew to accept it as part of life in spite of that nagging feeling that this needs to be changed. But having spent a year in Europe (where I never experienced a power cut) I see how much we could achieve if we had something as little as 24x7 reliable power supply. While the country continues to grow (population, economy, corruption, etc.) the commensurate requirement of power that is needed is being hedged, adjusted (jugaad-ed) or co-generated by consumers since the electricity supply is just not there to meet the demand. And a large section of urban consumers depend on back-up stored power by way of inverters, diesel gensets, etc. But I wonder how much all of this will cushion us from the stark reality that we simply don't (and will not) have the power to meet the growing power deficit.
On a visit to a village in the hinterland of a fairly well-developed (progressive?) state in western India during my last job, I had the opportunity to interact with farmers of the village who said that their village was electrified (which means, there's a overhead low-tension power line that comes up to their village to supply electricity). But they received power for only 2-3 hours a day, mostly in the afternoons! So I guess at nightfall, they still used firewood, kerosene and oil lamps and what not else to prolong their days and complete their chores. And to think that more than 30% of the country is not "electrified" at all til today! If even the "electrified" don't actually get electricity, then when will the others ever see the "light"?
The numbers of electrification (the government agencies pride themselves by listing the number of villages/counties it has "electrified") haven't really gone through the roof over the years. And even if we have indeed managed to "electrify" more regions of the country, we haven't really commissioned many power plants that we have ready surplus power waiting to be dispatched to these places. Even with goals like "Electricity for all by 2012", the country has been faced with severe developmental issues with adding power generation capacities - every new power project that is planned gets either embroiled in a land acquisition scam (UMPPS, Solar and Wind plants), a resource allocation scam (Coalgate, Centre-AP gas), environmental clearance clause (Hydro), or a liability clause (Nuclear). Sometimes I think we'll never catch up and the economy will take a turn for the worse when we reach that particular threshold of "sustenance power generation capacity" needed to keep the country going. If we don't add capacity quickly (like China) and decisively (like China), leaving no option unexplored, we would soon be staring that threshold in the face. It may all seem like a tonne of bull, but then let's wait till the shit hits the fan and the fan hits the ceiling!
But to do something developmentally, like that quickly and decisively, we need a lot more "Shreedharans" (Delhi Metro man) in our bureaucracy who are able to get things done without compromising on quality of work, tax payers' money and ethics. I still look up to the IAS as a very respectable cadre of service, in spite of some the names of officers doing the rounds of scam-headlines these days. Why should a "few good men" pay the price of the largesse of many bad ones? And looking at some of the new IAS entrants, one is filled with hope and prospect that the younger generation's true Indian spirit of resilience to setbacks and aggression to succeed will take the cadre and the country forward.
So far, all electricity distributions companies in the country follow a strict schedule of demand side management, which involves supplying and cutting out power to different regions at different times of the day, based on the whether it's a week-day or a weekend, and the season. Over the morning as loads shift from residential districts to urban and industrial/commercial districts, supply to residential areas is cut out or minimised. And so on and so forth, different people bear the brunt of the power cuts at different times of the day. These are what are called as "scheduled outages". And very often (almost everyday even in big cities) one is a victim of "unscheduled outages" as was I this morning! And to top it all, I had to also look forward to the scheduled outage later during the day (for which I already had my reading and crosswords ready on hand; but this was not prepared for!!!!).
I can't wait to get back to Europe (for the uninterrupted power supply)! Well, I also can't wait to finish my studies and come back again to India. But then I'll have to be ready to face the power cuts again cause one year is not a long time for much to change (the one year I was gone, Delhi went from being a swanky and clean Commonwealth Games host city to a dusty, littered and rowdy Capital city again) - will I be better prepared? I could mentally prep up for the set-back, but will I be able to endure it? Really, will I? Oh right,... resilient and aggressive! Yep I will.
6 comments:
So you think that's a really big problem. Add to that the fact that in great urbanized cities like Bangalore people have to pay as much as Rs. 700 for one tanker of water to be delivered to their homes each day and some people in this same city who don't get it at all because they cannot afford it and some who let it flow until thy kingdom come without a thought for its wastage simply because they have the monopoly on bore wells. Nevertheless with all the drawbacks in this great country of mine, its still the country I want to live in for the rest of my life. Jai Hind.
That is indeed a shame. The country has very few affluent persons who are also conscientious and scrupulous citizens. And I agree with your last sentiment sister,.... very much :)
Let's hope going to Mars will solve all India's problems! See:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/15/world/asia/india-mars/index.html
What are you guys wasting your time on?!?!?!
Oh don't even get me started on that... there has always been a serious issue about priorities in the government (irrespective of party). When human dignity and value of life that are "enshrined" in the constitution are to be embodied in government policies, so far they only seem to be "shrines" and not implemented; and we go about placating our conspiracies and egos about who's stronger India or China (aka Mars mission!). Not to sound too self-deprecating, I still think we've achieved a lot in spite of having such a large population, with such diversity and so much illiteracy. Still lot more to do! P.S. the power cuts are now lasting up to 3-hrs!!
sounds like mohan bhargav from swades... :)
Hmmm...... now who's mohan bhargav?
Post a Comment