light at the end of the tunnel???
text of letter sent to press
The 'National Programme of Franchisees' of the Rural Electrification Corporation, launched recently, is easily amongst the most sensible of steps taken by the government. This coupled with 'Decentralised Distributed Generation' scheme, where long distance low-voltage transmission and its attendant problems are avoided, can make for a sea change in the quality of life of the rural population in the not too distant future. When viewed in this holistic fashion, non-convetional energy sources can become viable, and where there may still be problems, the government could even consider offering various forms of incentives to cover up the gaps, atleast initially.
What is happening is essentially privatisation, though, with the P-word still being anathema to the Indian Socialistic mind, it is being given a more acceptable terminology. Fair enough!
And, with the rural demand thus addressed, the next sensible step would be to hand-over the distribution in the cities to TATA's, Reliance and the like, who are already doing a fairly commendable job in the field in cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Greater NOIDA, Kolkata, etc, where the population doesn't have to depend on gensets, inverters, converters, batteries, emergency lamps, candles, torches, etc, which, even by a conservative estimate, would be a Rs 1,000 crore industry segment in a city like Bangalore. Privatisation of distribution will automatically mean the killing of this segment of the industry. But, that is exactly the benefit of privatisation. Capital flows to the most efficient means of usage of resources. Can there be a more compelling reason, for privatisation, by whatever name it be called?
The 'National Programme of Franchisees' of the Rural Electrification Corporation, launched recently, is easily amongst the most sensible of steps taken by the government. This coupled with 'Decentralised Distributed Generation' scheme, where long distance low-voltage transmission and its attendant problems are avoided, can make for a sea change in the quality of life of the rural population in the not too distant future. When viewed in this holistic fashion, non-convetional energy sources can become viable, and where there may still be problems, the government could even consider offering various forms of incentives to cover up the gaps, atleast initially.
What is happening is essentially privatisation, though, with the P-word still being anathema to the Indian Socialistic mind, it is being given a more acceptable terminology. Fair enough!
And, with the rural demand thus addressed, the next sensible step would be to hand-over the distribution in the cities to TATA's, Reliance and the like, who are already doing a fairly commendable job in the field in cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Greater NOIDA, Kolkata, etc, where the population doesn't have to depend on gensets, inverters, converters, batteries, emergency lamps, candles, torches, etc, which, even by a conservative estimate, would be a Rs 1,000 crore industry segment in a city like Bangalore. Privatisation of distribution will automatically mean the killing of this segment of the industry. But, that is exactly the benefit of privatisation. Capital flows to the most efficient means of usage of resources. Can there be a more compelling reason, for privatisation, by whatever name it be called?
posted by Muralidhar Rao at
11:21 PM
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