Forget FDI, Focus on Power Sector

Rahul Agarwal

Again with a pathetic feeling I am writing on the burning issue of Indian economy. With the power collapse in two consecutive days due to failure of power grid, you can easily recognize what is the condition of power sector of India. India which is one of the most emerging economies of the Asia is still lacking in the power sector. Still majority of the population in the India give votes during election to the candidate with only one hope or you can say demand i.e. “Availability of Electricity”. In rural India still villages get electricity for only 2-3 hours in a day which is not adequate according to current demands of the nation. Whenever a farmer gives their vote, he still seeks electricity from the government. Farmers have the tendency that who so ever give them adequate electricity, they will their votes to that party only. Like always many political parties formed and many diluted and many gave commitments about electricity, but still people are living in dark in many parts of the rural India.

Basic Need:  
Whenever you think about basic need then images of FOOD, SHELTEER, CLOTHES appear in your mind but now days it has changed to electricity. Without electricity you cannot imagine your life. It’s a very basic need. But India the emerging superpower nation is tackling with its basic need i.e. “electricity”.  How can you think that India will be the next superpower? If still Ministers claim this then it would be a hilarious joke.

Main Problem:
In India around 8% electricity generated from nuclear power plants and majority is generated from thermal plants which contributed 57% of the total power generation. In thermal power plants COAL is the fuel which required for generating electricity. The main problem lies in the availability of coal. COAL INDIA Ltd the state owned monopoly which supply coal to the various power plants is not digging well, due to this several power plants are running out of coal despite we have mountains of coal reserves in our country.
According to the data given by Coal Ministry, Coal India has been asked to sign fuel supply agreements (Committing to supply 80% fuel) to various power plants, but unfortunately Coal India is supplying only 65% of the fuel to the power plants and rest 15% of coal is imported which at today’s rates costs twice that of domestic supply and which is deliver it to power producers. Now government is using a tool which is “Price Pooling” to distribute the heavy prices of imported coal between various power producers.
According to CIL, it has estimated that it will import around 20 million tonnes of coal this fiscal despite having huge reserves of coal which is not using and which can boost up our economy. But as usual no one have the courage to dig up that precious coal. To import coal we are paying almost twice of the domestic supply of coal in spite of being we are tackling with the inflation malaise.
Jharia town which is Dhanbad District of Jharkhand State has huge coal reserve which is worth of several crores are still unmined and it has been burning from past many years and we still depend on the imported coal which leads to increase in the price of electricity around 6 to 8 paise per unit.
Recent power collapse created havoc in the mind of the people and after that government increased price of electricity around 18% which will be paid by the public only. I mean in every case all burden is transferred only to the public only. They have to bear all the extra expenses which were due to the poor management of the government.
If we can dig out our coal reserves very well then it will not only reduce the price of elasticity but it will also help to put our nation on the right track which was tackling with the problem of food price, oil price, inflation, fiscal deficit etc.

Forget FDI:  
Today the most burning issue is FDI in single brand. Well, I would say forget the FDI, just concentrate more on power sector which was grabbing headlines not only in India but across the globe about the inefficiency of power sector. We need major reforms which can change the India’s power sector drastically. Of Course, we are the main culprits behind this malaise, as we never care about electricity whether it is being used optimally or not, we don’t care.
So switch off all electric appliances if not in use. I would say many thanks to the government which understand this pity problem and started many ideas like if you will consume less than 200 units in a month then you will get subsidy of Rs 200 in your monthly bill. So this small-small gestures and initiatives will lead to optimum utilization of electricity.

Is India the next Super Power?

         

Rahul Agarwal
Many of you had questioned yourself that “Is India the next superpower?”  And many of you had answers that YES WHY NOT? And some of them had “MIGHT BE POSSIBLE”, and some of them had “In this scenario not possible”.
Well yes with this recent Power Grid failure in two consecutive days that affected 600 million people lives showed the bitter truth of India. India the next super power (Neta Babus’s claim) goes like a promise to the public which can never be fulfilled. With this power failure many industries incur huge amount of losses as workers in manufacturing units didn’t able to work throughout the day. The massive blackout affected so many life and people questioned themselves “Sarkar ye tax ke paise kaha istamaal karti hai?”  Lot of questions need to be asked and lot of truth needs to reveal.

Every year government earns lots of money in form of tax and yet we faced a massive blackout on two consecutive days.
 Lots of wastage takes place in transmission and distribution of electricity which results in bankruptcy of state electricity boards. Power theft term is not new for us, this will also result in huge losses to state electricity boards. Most of the power plants are not utilizing up to the maximum. Mainly 57% of our electricity comes from thermal power plants which uses coal as a precious fuel to generate power. The main problem behind this is availability of coal. Coal mining is public monopoly. This put pressure on “Coal India Ltd.”  And Coal India alone cannot cope up the pace with the demand and supply of coal. So disruptions in coal supply impacted a lot on our power plants. This results into under utilization of power plants and loss of power generation. They are generating electricity below their capacity. I mean with huge amount in hand what our government is doing? Only to make promises and break those promise later on. When this power collapse happened on the first day, then media ask our power minister Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde that what was the reason behind this power failure? Then the minister said it is because UP was overdrawing electricity from its allocated limit and this resulted to put pressure on the grid and this lead to collapse of the grid. Next day same drama happened again and media ask why this grid failure happened again? Then minister said this time Punjab and Haryana was overdrawing electricity from its allocated limit. This resulted to the collapse of the power grid.


These ministers are giving excuses and they are not bothering about the culprits. They only said the very common line which is used in every case i.e. “Investigation is going on and we will disclose the report in the public”. Reports will come and reports will go but none will take a step or a revolution against this malaise which creates a drama around the world about the India. India is an electricity starved nation. We need major reforms in India’s power sector to boost up the economy. Many of the villages still after independence getting electricity for 2-3 only in 24 hours, around 60% population of India still depend on agriculture as their livelihood and they need water and electricity for irrigation. Without proper irrigation to the paddy fields the crops will not grow which increases the prices of vegetables and thus further put pressure on the inflation which is already on the high and have been tackling by the RBI. Moreover, most of the farmers take loans on their land to grow crops and if they do not get proper electricity then they will be in debt and due to this every year farmers are committing suicide.
Recently 18% hike in the price of electricity already put people into deep concern. Now they have to dig out more from their pockets.

I mean from every angle innocent public suffers like you take example of petrol, diesel, LPG, kerosene, water, electricity, food, real estate etc. Everything rises but still poor people who live in the village still depend on the agriculture.
So new power minister Mr. Moodbidri Veerappa Moily are you listening to the voices of poor people?

Now a question need to be asked "Is India the next superpower?"       

Carnage at Maruti

Rahul Agarwal

It was a normal morning on July 19 and I took newspaper to read what is going on these days? Suddenly I saw a headline “Violence at Maruti” then my eyes which were not opened fully and after reading that heading I was completely flabbergasted. The mass violence at Maruti showed the bitter truth about union workers which can do whatever they want. I mean with iron rods and car parts they had beaten brutally a senior executive and 90 others. It seems like a planned conspiracy in which a senior executive Mr. Awanish Kumar Dev – General Manager, Human Resource was beaten up severely and left to die. Due to this violence the Manesar plant of Maruti was completely shut down for the investigation purposes. After the violence, Maruti Suzuki, Managing Director, Mr. Shinzo Nakanishi said that this time the violence will not be tolerated. After attending the cremation of Awanish Kumar Dev who died on July 18^th violence between workers and senior executives Mr. Shinzo Nakanishi asked Haryana chief Minister, Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda a full investigation into this matter.

In 2011 also Maruti was in headlines due to 13 days strike in June 2011. There always have been issues with the Union labors and management. But in October 2011 this issue was solved by Maruti management. Because of these strikes and recent violence, the Manesar plant of Maruti which is 750- acre that produces 600,000 units for India’s largest automaker each year are grabbing headlines not only in India but also outside India also. Other countries can now see the image of India as an investment destination. There was a wage negotiation took place between workers and management in 2011 due to these workers went to strike three times which resulted in a whooping revenue loss to Maruti. Now due to shutdown of Manesar plant Maruti is losing 75 Crore per day as a revenue loss.

No action taken place yet. Only 97 have been arrested and the main culprits are roaming free. Police are doing their inquiries and Ministry of Home affairs have asked and alert the IB( Intelligence Bureau) to check whether this mass violence was planned conspiracy or not?


Many politicians and journalist have raised their concerns over this Maruti episode. Some of them said that it was a planned conspiracy and some of them said that it is the inefficiency of the Maruti management to tackle the problem between the contract labors and wage labors. Due to this Maruti workers went to strike in June 2011.

All will share their deep concerns about that fateful day, all will forget this fateful day after a period of time, but an innocent life was finished in this violence who was a commendable father, husband, son, brother of someone. I am talking about the HR executive who died on that fateful day, what was his fault? Does the GM, HR tag on his head is the fault? Is he the main culprit behind the problems of Uniorn workers and management? If your answer says no then why he was beaten up to death? After 12 days also his family didn’t receive the compensation from Maruti as well as from government also. A bitter truth of India.