India's Power Sector

Power industry plays a very crucial role in an economy’s progress. Despite being the second fastest growing economy in the world, almost one-third of India’s population has no access to electricity. Several initiatives of several governments have failed to encourage private investments in power sector. India desperately needs to increase electricity generation to meet the drastically growing energy demands from growing middle class and industrial base. Opening up of Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP) is expected to attract private and even overseas capital into this sector.

India is a net importer of energy and 35% of its primary energy needed is met through imports. Its ironic that despite being rich in coal and gifted with abundant sources of renewable energy like solar, wind, hydro and bio-energy, the country has only 0.4% of the world’s hydrocarbon reverses. Lack of government support has forced several solar PV cell and module manufactures to focus on European markets which are supported by government subsidies.