For power to reach all, it will need a multi-pronged strategy, collaboration between Centre and states

That the government of India’s recent initiatives in the power sector have started bearing fruit is undeniable(unquestioned,निर्विवाद). It is for this reason that the ministry of power and renewable energy (RE) has been graded as one of the most performing ministries at the Centre.

With the increasing availability of power in the country resulting in a fall in prices and the gradual easing of transmission constraints, it is clear that the milestone of 24×7 supply to all parts of the country is around the corner. The big question, however, is to ensure supply of power, even if it is not 24×7, to all and here, the objective of “power for all” set by policymakers comes under scrutiny(examine,जाँच).

Both Central and state governments have recently been applauding their rural electrification programme. As per government of India estimates, out of 5,87,464 villages in the country, only 18,542 were not electrified at the beginning 2015-16. Of these 14,813 were to be electrified through the grid while 3,639 were to be electrified off-grid through RE sources. Till March 2016, 6,479 villages have already been electrified and the rest are to be electrified by December.

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In the states, this figure stands between 95 to 100 per cent with the exceptions of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. States like Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu are already claiming 100 per cent electrification. Even states like Bihar, UP and Rajasthan claim to be touching 99 per cent. The glaring issue in the light of these figures is that by the Centre’s own admission, the number of households without electricity in the country stands at a staggering seven to eight crore. In UP, this figure is about two crore.

This contradiction(opposition,विरोधाभाश) comes from the definition of electrified villages adopted by the government of India. According to the rural electrification policy guidelines of 2004, a village is classified as electrified if basic infrastructure like distribution transformers, poles and distribution lines are provided in the locality, including one “Dalit basti”, and if electricity is provided in one of the public places like schools, panchayat offices, health centres etc and the number of households electrified are 10 per cent of the total number of households in the village.

Prior to October1997, the definition was that a village should be classified as electrified if electricity is being used within its revenue area for any purpose. After October 1997 and till the arrival of the present policy in 2004, a village was deemed to be electrified if the electricity is used in any of the inhabited localities, within the revenue boundary of the village, for any purpose. Thus, even though a village may appear in the electrified list of villages, the actual number of households getting power may be a mere 10 per cent.

The recent controversy over whether Nagla Fatela village in Hathras district, now famous because of its mention by the prime minister in his Independence Day speech, was electrified in 1985 or 2015, is, in a way, an outcome of this bureaucratic juggling.

Further, as per the existing practices of the electricity supply code applicable in different states, all households within 40 metres of an electrical pole are supposed to take their connection from the pole. This leaves a colossal(large,बड़ा) chunk of the population located within the “electrified village” but outside this 40-metre limit. Coupled with this is the problem that even in electrified hamlets, not all the households within 40 meters of the distribution lines/poles, take the connection.

Thus there is a situation where people wanting to take connections cannot get it because they are situated more than 40 meters away and those within the area refuse to take connections and instead use what is commonly known as “katia” to take clandestine(illegal,अवैध) connections. This results in double the trouble: First, the revenue of discoms does not increase and second, the dissatisfaction among the villagers grows.

If you look into the numbers as per the census, there were 22.66 crore households in the country out of which only 16.58 crore had connections. Of these, 30-40 per cent are unmetered. Those with unmetered connections get electricity at very cheap or subsidised rates as they are billed either on a per connection basis or a per kilowatt basis. The discoms, it is widely believed, use this as an opportunity to load most of the stolen electricity into the consumption of this category. This is also the cause for the poor financial health of several discoms.

A three-pronged strategy is required to tackle this problem: One, people who fall within 40 metres of the poles should be persuaded to take the connections. Apart from persuasion(encouragement,प्रोत्साहन), a legislative approach could be to charge the households within the 40 meters an electricity cess, as is done in the case of water provided by the municipal corporations.

Two, power department officials should ensure that people within the 40 metres range take connections. One impediment(barrier,बाधा) to taking these connections is their cost, which should be reduced and charged in instalments, especially from low-income applicants. Three, an extensive assessment of how much investment is required to let the electricity network go up to all the households. This investment should be made on priority basis, as it would bring more revenue to the discoms and it may reduce the tariff burden on existing consumers.

If the investment on expanding the network to each household is too high, governments may consider encouraging private micro-grids and mini-grids. In several states, off-grid micro and mini-grids are a reality. In UP and Bihar, where the grid coverage is poor, 70-80 such projects have already come up. Many other states are following suit.

Simultaneously, the Central government has come up with a draft mini-grid policy which should give a big boost to them in the country. The need is to have a coordinated plan to extend the existing grid and to set up more mini-grids in remote villages. This would require not just coordination but active collaboration among the states and the Centre. Only this can turn the dream of “power for all” into a reality.

 courtesy:indian express

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Chronicles in unlearning

When organisations of the Sangh Parivar periodically rail against “Macaulay’s children” and propose a review of the hold of western knowledge systems over Indian education, it should be widely welcomed. After all, indigenous(native,स्वदेशी) knowledge, as preliterate communities in India, for instance, have begun to point out, and as those who know our rich literary traditions have shown, have been monstrously ignored in the education system we have inherited. Why then does this announcement produce disquiet?

This is because the overall context of such pronouncements is one that is markedly anti-intellectual. Before this is decried(condemn,निंदा) as a baseless charge, let me provide some examples. Earlier this year, several “academics” denounced the overall editorship of the Murty Classical Library series under Professor Sheldon Pollock because he was not sufficiently “imbued with a sense of respect and empathy for the greatness of Indian civilisation.” Neither Prof. Pollock’s formidable(fierce,दुर्जेय) knowledge of Sanskrit and other Indian languages nor his acknowledged stature as an academic could pass the litmus test of a worshipful loyalty to “Indian civilisation” as the foundational ground of all pursuits of knowledge. Were the signatories of the petition alarmed that Buddhist women poets have been allowed to be heard in that series? That Sufi singers have found new audiences? That Akbar’s life and times are being read by more than medieval historians?

A ‘cultural revolution’

Of late, many distinguished intellectuals have been replaced by dubious(doubtful,संदिग्ध) dabblers(lovers,शौक़ीन) as chiefs in premier institutions of higher education and research across the country.

It would be a lazy error to read this as a mere change of guard, of places once ruled by some version of the luxuriantly varied Indian Left falling under the rule of the monotonous(dull,नीरस) Right. No doubt, English-speaking intellectuals owing allegiance(loyalty,निष्ठा) to one or another stripe of the Left/Congress enjoyed disproportionate power for decades, particularly in Delhi institutions, but normally no one doubted their intellectual abilities. The same cannot be said of the new appointees, who are taking major Indian institutions in directions that are not necessarily dedicated to the production and promotion of knowledge.

The home-grown “cultural revolution” that is under way is increasingly encouraging only obedience. The distinction between former leaders and the new heads lies not only in formal academic credentials; they must be placed within the larger framework of “national intellectual warming” that too loudly expresses doubt and distrust about intellectual life as we know it.

A senior Minister has openly called for an isolation of those he identifies as “intellectual terrorists”, internal enemies of the state who may critique the actions of governments and their armies. A good sign of the new hostility(enmity,शत्रुता) was the breathtaking declaration, in a pamphlet issued by the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad unit to welcome new students, that departments of social sciences and humanities, whether in the Indian Institutes of Technology or in other universities, are the source of all agitators and should therefore be closely surveilled.

Now, for the first time in the last two centuries, we are witnessing a virulent(poisonous,विषैला) form of anti-intellectualism which will leave a lasting impact on the future of a wide range of activities from filmmaking and art to other forms of knowledge-production. The visions that have been spelled out for programmes of research and for educational institutions put a low premium on open-ended,rigorous(strict,सख्त), creative intellectual activity of any kind.

Some recent examples will suffice(enough,पर्याप्त), but they can be multiplied. The newsletters of the Indian Council of Historical Research are generously peppered with photographs of the current Chairperson and his pious(holy,पवित्र) homilies on a wide range of subjects. Here is a sampling of what appears more like a moralising discourse in a temple courtyard: “Our ancient literature vouchsafes(decorate,विभूषित) that Indian social institutions enjoy solid cultural base reinforced(strengthen,सुद्रढ़) by Dharma unlike modern intellectual propositions. As argued today, social institutions like marriage, family, community, tribe, society and state should not be understood as contractual… the Vedic marriage system is qualitatively different from the marriages of other religious belief systems or modern social marriages or live-in relationships where both enter into a conditional agreement unless they bind themselves for life.”

Generally, what does the Chairman see as the purpose of historical knowledge? “To shape the character of the people and in turn the nation.” Here we have a rather frank admission of what higher educational and research must be made to foster(encourage,प्रोत्साहित): nationalism of the kind dictated by the ruling party. No wonder, asProf. Kumkum Roy has shown in her analysis of Rajasthan textbooks, Gandhi doesn’t get killed at all; he merely disappears from the book.

Obedience was on full display in some universities during the celebration of India’s Independence. Enjoined by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to record their “compliance”, the heads of premier educational institutions showed zeal at rangoli as well as national song renditions, as if to atone for the possibility of the university otherwise living up to its duty of encouraging critical thinking.

In other more predictable quarters, the attack on intellectuals has been reduced to unadorned(plain,सादा) abuse, as in the Organiser’s recent “review” of the book co-authored by Professor Romila Thapar on nationalism. When the “review” denounces the book’s “stinky logic of provincialising(narrowness,संकीर्णता) the otherwise wide-ranging cultural nationalism or Hindutva”, we realise that even intelligibility has become a dispensable virtue in such excoriating(scratch,रगड़ना) attacks.

Some robust memories

This is very bleak(colourless,बेरंग) scenario. Still, we are left with some robust(strong,मजबूत) memories of how institutions could think under inspired leaders. In the 1990s, early years yet of the National Law School University in Bengaluru, Professor Madhava Menon invited human rights lawyer Nandita Haksar and feminist legal scholars Flavia Agnes and Ratna Kapoor to teach and conduct research. He recognised, in short, the intellectual importance of engaging with those whose views he may have cordially(willingly,मन से) disliked, even opposed.

A more recent instance was that of the former Vice Chancellor of JNU, Prof. Sudhir Sopory, a celebrated biologist who respectfully followed not just the rules, but the norms that govern the university. He showed the greatest respect for disciplines, methods, and perspectives he knew not much about. In a farewell that endeared him to the teaching community, he declared his desire to return as a student of the School of Arts and Aesthetics at JNU, a relatively new and flourishing department. No greater compliment could be paid to the intellectual culture of the institution.

The current insistence on obedience, and the impoverished ideas of nationalism which university spaces are beginning to propagate, have already dented the intellectual agendas of such spaces. By turning universities and institutions of learning into places of unquestioning worship, we run the risk of being brought to our knees, in more ways than one.

courtesy:the hindu

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An experiment with power

On a visit to Manipur, I asked several people which aspect of their lives had changed the most from the perspective of governance and/or delivery of public goods and services. This wasn’t meant to be a systematic sample survey and was more of a dipstick indicator. Manipur has a population of 2.86 million and nearly 30 per cent of it is urban. The people I spoke to were from Imphal, so there is a bit of a bias(unfair,पक्षपात) in the sample. The Imphal agglomeration(mass,ढेर), not just the municipal area, has a population around 5,50,000. This gives you some idea of the possible sample bias.

Electricity distribution found the top mention in the people’s responses. Electricity supply has three aspects: Generation, transmission and distribution. Generation will be a major issue in Manipur, especially in times other than the rainy season. Much of the power will have to come from outside the state — Arunachal Pradesh (Lower Subansiri), Assam (Bongaigaon) and Tripura (Palatana) — even if hydroelectricity generation from the Loktak project increases.

The responses of the people I spoke to had to do with distribution, not generation. They talked of prepaid electricity. Manipur is not the only state to experiment with such an idea. Haryana was the first state to introduce prepaid electricity. Lucknow, in UP, has prepaid electricity vouchers. These vouchers require a prepaid electricity meter, so that consumers can be alerted when a recharge is requisite(necessary,आवश्यक). Such meters make life easier. In addition, the Lucknow electricity supply authority offered a tariff rebate to encourage the switch. Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh has a similar scheme, though there has been resistance in the state with consumers complaining that their monthly bills have increased. Their complaint is understandable. After all, the purpose of prepaid meters and prepaid vouchers isn’t only to make life easier. They also intend to reduce aggregate technical and commercial losses (ATC), a part of which is euphemism for theft.

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In Manipur, the idea of prepaid electricity was targeted at clandestine(illegal,अवैध) power connections. Seen this way, the resistance to meters in Itanagar does not seem odd. That there were no reports of resistance in Imphal appears bizarre(strange,अजीब).

Some towns and some types of domestic consumers in Madhya Pradesh will also have prepaid connections once the MP Electricity Regulatory Commission approves the scheme. Chandigarh is also slated to have a similar scheme, so are Pune and Mumbai. Telangana plans prepaid meters for government offices.

To get back to Manipur, the Manipur State Power Distribution Company Limited has plans to provide meters to all consumers. People unfamiliar with Manipur may not realise that the state has two distinct geographical regions: The valley— where 60 per cent of the state’s population lives — and the hilly areas. Access to public goods and services is much more arduous(difficult,कठिन) in the hilly regions, terrain being a major constraint. There will be 1,00,000 electronic meters outside the valley, but except for district headquarters and towns in the hills, these will not be be prepaid.

The experiment with prepaid meters has begun in four districts: Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur. The government did not embark(start,प्रवेश) on the project in all the four districts at one go. Prepaid meters were first installed in central parts of Imphal because the government wanted to gauge if the experiment would work.

People have been jailed for stealing electricity and tampering with meters. The power situation has improved. Collections from payments of electricity bills have increased. At the same time, demand for electricity has reduced by 50 per cent and tripping incidents have become rarer. The number of consumers has also gone up. One should reiterate(repeat,दोहरान) that this is an increase in the number of legal consumers. There is better planning — on the supply side — and there is no need for VIP lines (those guaranteed uninterrupted power supply regardless of what was happening in the rest of Manipur).

My respondents — not just people who work for the government — told me all this with a sense of pride. If consumers know exactly how much electricity they are consuming (there are instant alerts) and how much that costs (not quite the same with post-paid bills), they are more judicious in using electricity.

Although the connection is somewhat distant, the prepaid metering experiment reminded me of an anecdote in Prafulla Chandra Ray’s (1861-1944) autobiography — it has not been translated into English. It was published in 1937. Ray studied BSc (physics, chemistry, biology) at Edinburgh University. At that time, Edinburgh University didn’t have a system of tuition fees. If a student liked the lecture, he/she left some money for the lecturer while leaving the lecture hall. I wonder if we will ever have prepaid vouchers for higher education, specific to the lecturer.

courtesy:indian express

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