“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is seeking to secure $400 billion of investment in the power industry in the next five years as he targets an additional 76,000 megawatts in generation by 2017. India has missed every annual target to add electricity production capacity since 1951.
Why does anyone think that $400 billion will make any difference. My tongue-in-cheek title not-withstanding, the 15 hour long collapse of the power grid in India in the middle of a heat wave is a symptom of what is wrong with India: short-termism. From politicians to business elite to bureaucrats to other parts of society – no one wants to think about the bigger picture because it doesn’t win elections, doesn’t fill the bank accounts or simply hang-on to the job.
I wish so very badly this weren’t absolutely the case. But I witnessed it firsthand.
Are you still there and how did it impact you?
To state the obvious, MMS is playing the fiddle while…
From the potential India was perceived to have back in 2005/06, it has faltered badly year after year. Politicians lining their own pockets while the middle class suffers.
It is kind of ironic that MMS was one of the main architects of the liberalization movement in the late 80’s/early 90’s that sustained the economy for a couple decades and he is now unable to control his own house and has lost all credibility.
For all the “IT powerhouse” that India is seen as, it is damning that the Indian govt has no public policy on securing the country’s basic infrastructure. For all one knows this could be a planned attack, but no one will ever know because the Indian govt chooses to use the death-by-committee approach to mull over the past instead of planning for the future.