Indian Power Sector: An Overview
Decades of economic planning since independence in India placed
significant emphasis on development of the power sector. Electricity
generation capacity has grown from 1362 MW in 1947 to over
124,287 MW by March 2006. However, per capita electricity
consumption remains much below the world average and even lower
than in some developing Asian economies (Table 1 [ PDF 7.4KB | 1 pages ]).
Weak financial status, skewed tariff structure and poor
operational efficiency of state utilities are imposing a heavy burden
on the economic resources of the respective state governments
(Singh, 2006). Investment in the sector has not been able to improve
access and keep pace with growing demand for electricity in the
country. Recent population census (2001) revealed that 44.2% of the
households do not have access to electricity. Even those consumers
who are already connected to the grid face severe power shortages.
Energy and peak shortages were estimated to be 7.4% and 10.5% in
2004-05 respectively (CEA, 2006). Policy reforms in the power
sector were aimed at attracting private investment to ease power
shortages.
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The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), its Board of Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms.
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