more than 50℅ of the energy used by villages in India comes from
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On 28 April 2018 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India had achieved its goal, ahead of schedule, of providing electricity to every village in India. This is one of the greatest achievements in the history of energy.
Since 2000 around half a billion people have gained access to electricity in India, with political effort over the last five years significantly accelerating progress. In addition, the country was already on track to achieving universal household electricity access by the early 2020s, yet Prime Minister Modi has now moved up this target to the end of 2018. This will improve the lives of over 230 million people.
While this next “last mile” challenge will be not be easy to meet, particularly in a country as large and geographically diverse as India, the social and economic benefits are significant.
For a start, electric lighting makes the use of candles, kerosene and other polluting fuels for lighting redundant, not only saving money (and providing more light) but also seriously improving health. Electricity can increase productive hours in a household leading to positive outcomes on education and economic well being. It can also spur innovation and lead to entrepreneurial micro businesses ventures, and in time lead to greater agricultural yields. Benefits also flow to the likes of schools, banking and medical services.
India is clearly a success story, and was highlighted as a bright spot for energy access in IEA’s Energy Access Outlook 2017. But in other regions of the world, huge challenges remain, with over 670 million people across the world projected to be without electricity access in 2030 on the basis of current progress. 90% of these people are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. How can the lessons learned from India’s electrification story be translated to accelerate progress towards universal access?
There are two key lessons to highlight. First, there is a need for committed political leadership, backed by institutions with the capacity and mandate to deliver electrification.
Universal household electricity access was a central political commitment in India’s 2014 national elections and the government placed a high priority on following through. This commitment started from the top with Prime Minister Modi but was enthusiastically pursued by former Power Minister, Mr Piyush Goyal, and then current Power Minister Mr RK Singh. The effort ultimately involved the tireless efforts of numerous officials and operators in the Indian bureaucracy.
The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana scheme is a prime example of coordinated government action. This scheme focused on strengthening distribution networks and increasing village and household connections by co-funding network upgrades and extensions. Over 99% of people who have gained access in India since 2000 have done so as a result of grid extension – the focus of government measures. The government has more recently been targeting mini-grid and stand-alone solar home systems to deliver access to some of the hardest-to-reach homes.
The second lesson is the importance of transparent monitoring and tracking against targets – you can’t manage what you can’t measure. India has placed a strong emphasis on this principle, including through the creation of an online dashboard where real-time information is made available on the progress of village and household electrification. Data is also broken down to the state level to encourage internal competition across jurisdictions.