Power is a critical infrastructure for economic development and is vital to the sustenance of a modern economy. The projected growth of the Indian economy depends heavily on the performance and growth of the power capacity has increased from 1362 MW to over 100,000 MW and more than 500,000 villages have received electrification – no doubt an impressive achievement in absolute terms! But the fact remains that annual per capita consumption of electricity is the lowest in the world at about 350 kWh. Further, people in a large number of villages have no access to electricity. The end users of electricity like house-holds, farmers, commercial establishments, industries are confronted with frequent power cuts, both scheduled and unscheduled. Power cuts, erratic voltage and low or high supply frequency have added to the ‘power woes’ of the consumer. These problems emanate from…. The Union Ministry of Power has prepared a blueprint to address the above issues in a time bound manner. Academic Foundation has brought together four important reports on the subject and also the Electricityu Bill 2001. Blueprint for Power Sector Development: The document brings out the problems as well as strategies and initiatives to resolve them for accelerated development of the power sector. The second document included in this volume is the Distribution Policy Committee Report (Ministry of Power, Government of India). Recognizing the critical importance of reforms in the distribution sector, the Ministry of Power, Government of India, constituted a committee to study the issues related to distribution sector including private sector participation in the distribution sector. The committee under the chairmanship of Shri Ashok Basu, Secretary, Ministry of Power submitted its report in March 2002. The report highlights the importance of distribution reforms if electricity sector is to turnaround and become self sustaining. The Chief Ministers’ Conference held in March 2001 emphasised the urgency of power sector reform as a necessary requirement for ensuring rapid growth of the economy and for preserving the health of State finances. The Conference noted that the large amount of dues owed by the SEBs to the CPSUs was a major impediment to reforms and resolved to constitute an Expert Group to (a) recommend a one-time settlement of outstanding dues, and (b) recommend a programme for medium-term capital restructuring and reform of the SEBs. The findings of the Expert Group thus formed, culminated in the following two reports (reproduced in this book). Report of the Expert Group on Settlement of SEB Dues (May 2001); Report of the Expert Group on Restructuring SEBs (July 2001). We sincerely hope that the present volume which includes all these four important reports and Electricity Bill – 2001 will provide the reader at one place a comprehensive coverage of this important sector – Power sector in the Indian economy.
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