World Bank - India doing Extremely well on electrification

India is doing “extremely well” on electrification with nearly 85 per cent of the country’s population having access to electricity, the World Bank has said.

Between 2010 and 2016, India provided electricity to 30 million people each year, more than any other country, the World Bank said in its latest report released this week.

While challenges still remain to provide electricity to the rest of the 15 per cent of the 1.25 billion population. More than 3 crore rural households, or 17%, of rural households in the country still do not have an electricity connection, according to Government data. India is all set to achieve the target of universal access to electricity before the 2030 target date, Vivien Foster, Lead Energy Economist at the World Bank.

The report comes less than a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that all the villages in the country had been electrified. .

According to World Bank Report on Energy Progress :-

• The report said nearly 85 per cent of the country’s population had access to electricity.
• Referring to India’s tremendous electrification effort, the report said it expects 250 million people gaining electricity access between now and the early 2020s, when the country reaches full access.
• The rapid growth of electricity access in India is propelled by the country’s USD 2.5 billion electrification programmes to reach universal electrification, the report said.

According to Vivien Foster, Lead Energy Economist at World Bank :-

• India is doing extremely well on electrification. India's 85 per cent of the population has access to electricity.
• Thirty million a year is really an astounding performance and it stands out from the crowd. However, India is not the fastest country in electrification. Bangladesh and Kenya, for example, are faster in electrification than India, she noted.
• India is now entering final stage of electrification. In which India is getting into the more difficult aspects of electrification: the more remote population, the harder to reach people. However, reliability of service is an area of concern for India.
• In India having the connection doesn’t necessarily guarantee the energy’s reliable supply. So, getting the connection obviously is very important, but India still has a long way to continue to work on actually making that access meaningful in terms of hours of service.