India has the world's best, largest power grid

he new power minister, M Veerappa Moily in an interview with Kavita

Chowdhury, talks about the challenges before him and how he intends to address those. Edited excerpts: You have taken charge of the power ministry at a time when the country has seen the worst power crises in recent times. What are the immediate challenges before you? Power is a very crucial sector, as it fuels growth; one per cent increase in power generation leads to one per cent increase in gross domestic product. For an inclusive economy like India, the power sector needs to keep pace with the industry's growing demand. What happened yesterday was the first such case since 2001. As soon I took over, I promised power supply would be restored at the earliest.

And, now the power situation has stabilised 100 per cent. After all, we the
world's best and largest power grid. A committee has been constituted to probe the breakdown, and it would give its report in 15 days. Today, I held a meeting with this committee; it is looking into the causes and remedies. It would also ensure the stabilisation is sustained. With complete confidence, I state such things will not recur.

The secretary in the power ministry would also hold a meeting with power
secretaries of respective states on the same date. The purpose of the meetings would be to ensure this type of a crisis doesn't recur. The state governments and the Centre have to take steps to ensure this. The system has to work complementarily; this kind of debate - state versus state or Centre versus state - should not be encouraged.