Back-to-back failures of grids plunged the nation into darkness. A total of 21 states and its 60 million people were affected. Life in metros came to a grinding halt. People in small towns, for whom outages have become a way of life, were also surprised, and perhaps pleased, to see power cuts make a comeback on news TVs. World media termed it as the biggest power failure in a decade.

The reaction from the government was curt. Outgoing power minister Shushilkumar Shinde (he got a promotion the same day) was curt in his reaction. Other than blaming the states for overdrawing power which led to the grid failure, he said nothing. He did not find it necessary to elaborated on the causes and solution, even if in the works, of the problem. Neither an assurance that efforts will be made to avoid repeat of power failures on such massive scale was put forth. The power ministry was given as an additional charge to corporate affairs minister Veerappa Moily who during an interview on his first day said the power situation in the country was grim. Embarrassingly, there was a power cut during the interview!

Do you feel power sector is not on priority list of the govt?