Since 1951, the Indian government has somehow managed to fail in every single attempt to reach its annual target of increasing the nation’s electricity production capacity. But while the nation continues to struggle with crippling blackouts and power shortages till today, an
Since 1951, the Indian government has somehow managed to fail in every single attempt to reach its annual target of increasing the nation’s electricity production capacity. But while the nation continues to struggle with crippling blackouts and power shortages till today, an energy plan, conceived during the 1950s, may fundamentally alter the nation’s, and quite possibly the world’s, energy future.
Thorium, like its Norse god and Marvel superhero namesake, is expected to change the world.
Late last month, India suffered two consecutive power grid failures, which crippled the nation’s social and economic infrastructure: On July 30th, nearly 300 million Indians were affected by a massive blackout; and on the very next day, more than half of the population had no access to electricity after three of the nation's five power grids failed at lunchtime.
As engineers struggled to fix the world’s worst blackout in history, many analysts questioned whether the Indian government could meet the nation's increasing appetite for energy.
“The turmoil caused by the back-to-back grid failures is almost at the scale of a national emergency,” wrote Times of India journalist Ranjan Roy in an op-ed piece.
“A power crisis has been staring us at the face... and successive governments have failed to prevent a disaster,” he later noted.
According to a report by Bloomberg, India has missed every annual target to add electricity production capacity since 1951. India also faced a deficit of 8.5 percent on its base electricity load from 2010-2011; and many Indians now feel that government’s general inaction has compounded the nation’s energy problems.
“This is a telling commentary on the situation of the power sector in the country,” told Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of the Confederation of Indian Industry, to Arab News. “Losses to b