“Every household in the country will have electricity by 2017”, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised in his Independence Day speech this week. During the last five year over 100,000 villages have received electrical supply.

Singh’s statement came days after over half of India was left without any electric power twice in a row due to grid failures.

India’s per capita energy consumption is among the lowest in the world, and it is largely because many rural Indians don’t have access to electrical energy at all; in many urban areas, daily power outages are a matter of course. Most businesses and many homes have backup power via diesel generators, battery backups or both.

What this means:

Political pressure to deliver a robust energy infrastrucutre will continue to drive investment in all forms of energy production, distribution, and green consumption. This continues to be a growing opportunity area for foreign and local players of all kinds.