montek singh alhuwalia, the deputy chairman of planning commission and one of architects of india's 'development' tells one thing correctly and after many months he repeats the same thing and after many more months he keeps on repeating the same thing.

he is an 'expert' on increasing the energy production of india in such a way india's fragile and crucial rivers are ripped out and dammed, india's core forests submerged, polluting mega power plants come bang in middle of fishermen communities of coastal districts, welcome dangerous nuclear power plants that american communities themselves have rejected for past 30 years.

but this is not about his 'expert' moves on the power situation. but this rather his not so 'expert' moves on commenting on the sorry t&d loss situation in india. i quote him,
The focus, he added, would have to be on increasing the efficiency of distribution system as currently the power utilities do not "collect revenues on something like 34 per cent of power that's pumped into the system because of theft and transmission losses".

this is the same thing he said like many months back on the power situation in india which the PM also repeated. and he now tells the same thing. you ask him after 6 months he will be telling the same thing.

and there is a small correction in the quote "power utilities do not "collect revenues on something like 34 per cent of power that's pumped into the system because of theft and transmission losses".

the fact is that out of this 34 (some estimates puts it at 40%), there is power loss in the way the power is transmitted, amplified, fed, etc before it reaches homes and business. because with maniac urgency to build unsustainable power projects our policy makers have failed to make sure the infrastructure is in place.

if this infrastructure to transmit and distribute power is in place, first of all, we wont even need many other new power plants. oh wait...then it wont add to gdp figures right?