India Electrified?

Headline : India Electrified?
Details :
Details: India Electrified?
Recently, the Union government had declared that all villages across India have been electrified. While all villages have been electrified, as much as 17% of the 18 crore rural households remain without power connections.
Village Electrification: “Electrified” means that a village has been connected to the grid. It does not imply that all households have access to electricity. According to a data, out of the 22.44 crore village households, 18.91 crore have been electrified (84.29%).   

Current electrification scenario:
  • Village Electrification -With electricity reaching Manipur Leisang village recently, every village in India is said have been successfully electrified. This hence completes the mission of the union government piloted “Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana” (DDU-GJY).
  • Significantly, more than 18,000 villages have been electrified since 2014. But this doesn’t mean all rural houses have been provided with power connections, as merely 10% coverage is sufficient to call a village electrified.
  • Household Electrification -As much as 17% of the 18 crore rural households remain without power connections. 
  • It is indeed a big achievement that every village has been electrified, but the task ahead for electrifying all houses is far bigger a challenge. Additionally, India’s rural poverty is so striking that the poorer households may not be able to sustain an electric connection even under heavy subsidy.  
Some statistics:
Progress over the years -
                               
  • Quality of supply - As per government sources, as of December 2017, only six out of 30 states had 24 hour-power supply in rural areas. Over 50% of electrified rural households in UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal don’t even get 12 hours of supply in a day.
  • Households without a connection - UP tops the list with a striking 44% of the population living without electricity.
                              
                               
There are many challenges which needs to be addressed in field of
  • In Setting up of rural electricity infrastructure
  • In Providing connectivity to households
  • In Adequate supply of desired quality of power
  • In Supply of electricity at affordable rates
  • There is lack of equipment and manpower shortage
  • Deteriorating financial condition of DISCOMs. Losses of DISCOMS are more than 24%. Reducing that is a big task.Earlier, it was observed that the loss making electricity distribution companies (discoms) don’t want to supply to the villages even if the electrification has taken place.
  • The last-mile connectivity has always been a challenge, with households facing high connections costs, and states facing higher supply costs.

 Government Initiatives:
  • Under the Saubhagya scheme (Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana) the government aims to provide 24×7 reliable-quality power to India’s household The government looks to fund the cost of last-mile connectivity to willing households to help achieve the goal of lighting every household by 31 December 2018.
  • In December 2014, current government announced Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana  (DDUGJY) with major modifications in RGGVY. It aims at
    a. Separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders 
    b. Strengthening and augmentation of sub-transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas including metering of distribution transformers / feeders/consumers.
Government data from last week showed the country had electrified close to 13 per cent of the almost 36.8 million homes identified in October as needing power, the Bloomberg report said. For the Modi government, meeting its next deadline will not be easy. According to the report, it has to increase its monthly pace of connecting households by more than threefold.

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