The Great Indian Power Trip
Also this week, why 70% of India's villages are yet to get broadband connections, how ASHA workers can help access safe abortion
Growing up in Hyderabad, we had a running joke that each time there’s a breeze during the monsoons, the power department cuts off supply, lest there’s an accident. My first job in Mayawati-era Bundelkhand saw 18-hour power cuts. Except for a select few cities, this is a fairly ubiquitous experience in the ‘90s and the early aughts.
And while grids and redundancies have significantly improved, India’s power generation and distribution faces a grave threat: extreme weather events. A new study found that intense rains, heatwaves and high winds can result in up to 220% longer power outages in India. Hydropower projects are at risk from flash floods and landslides; coal and thermal plants suffer from fuel degradation, water scarcity, and heat stress.
Solar and wind energy can be more vulnerable: A cyclone or flood impacts these installations similar to other infrastructure, but there are also damages specific to renewable energy. For instance, extreme heat not only damages solar panels but also reduces power production. Solar panels are built to operate optimally at a certain temperature. Higher temperatures can reduce the efficiency of a solar panel by 10% to 25%.
With extreme weather events predicted to be more frequent, India must update outdated infrastructure, improve flood warning systems, and integrate climate resilience into energy planning, Manu Moudgil reports.
In 2011, the Union government set itself a lofty target: connecting every village with a broadband connection. The possibilities were endless: computer-led learning, tele-health appointments and the like, all of which would have been of immense advantage during the pandemic, when children missed months of schooling and basic healthcare was affected.
The trajectory of Indians using the internet shifted to the mobile phone, but coverage issues persist and are often cited–for instance, when workers under MGNREGS do not receive wages on time (or in some cases, at all) because attendance is not marked due to connectivity issues. It also shows up in the digital skills gap: a small proportion of Indians are able to use a spreadsheet, even as most of them use the internet on the mobile for making payments and communication.
Earlier this month, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Union budget that the government would provide internet connectivity to all secondary schools and public health centres in the country. But only about 200,000 of India’s 650,000 villages currently have access to broadband connections under the BharatNet programme.
To succeed, BharatNet must strengthen public-private partnerships, enhance digital literacy, and introduce demand-side subsidies like telecom vouchers and device support to drive adoption, Pooja Dash reports.
India has seen significant improvements in maternal and child health in the past two decades, thanks mainly to the army of frontline health workers including accredited social health activists or ASHA workers, who are paid a small honorarium.
These workers are in constant touch with the community and document every aspect of pregnancies, except one: whether the pregnancy is wanted or not. And so, awareness of abortions is low, and there are misconceptions on whether medical termination of pregnancy is legal–especially because of the strict laws against sex selection.
In the past few years, Chhattisgarh's Mitanins have been getting additional training on helping women and girls seek abortion for unwanted pregnancies. In the concluding part of her investigation from four states, Menaka Rao reports on how this model can help improve access to safe abortions across the country.
If you missed the earlier parts in the series, you can read about the stigma and lack of awareness here, the struggle to access even legal abortions here, and how getting an abortion is linked to contraceptive use here.
For IndiaSpend Hindi, Mithilesh Dhar Dubey reports how, with the Union government’s decision to extend duty-free import of tur dal until March 2026, farmers in states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are concerned about remunerative prices. The decision comes just as the farmers prepare to sell their crops, and the prices in the mandis have fallen below the minimum support price, we found.