Universal electrification: will the new electrification programme succeed in India?

To redress the problem of poor electricity access in rural India, even after 50 years of sustained electrification effort has proved to be a challenging task. And in order to address this problem, India launched a massive rural electrification programme in April 2005 with an objective of achieving universal household electrification by 2012. This short paper discusses the issues facing this programme and suggests that unless the risks are carefully mitigated, the programme may not succeed in achieving its principal objectives. Copyright 2006 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.