Publication Year: 2007

The Electricity Groundwater Conundrum: Case for a Political Solution to a Political Problem

Summary

Low cost and low quality electricity for agriculture contributes to erosion of electricity distribution systems and encourages wasteful consumption, even as farmers are increasingly deprived of adequate and good quality power. While past efforts to solve this problem have focused on technocratic approaches, this paper attempts to articulate a political interpretation of the electricity-groundwater conundrum. The paper argues that farmers are quite rational in their current decision-making given the problematic context within which they make choices. It outlines a more explicitly political approach to the problem, based on state level bargains between stakeholders and a multifaceted approach to implementing bargains.

Read more

Inconvenient Truths Produce Hard Realities: Notes from Bali

Summary

In the compromise road map for future climate change negotiations that was drawn up at Bali, the urgency suggested by science was lost. There are yet positives in that the US remains in the negotiating process and the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” of the developing countries has been maintained. India needs to now ask itself if it should hold on to a defensive national stance on climate or if the time is right to develop and implement creative national policies, and then articulate an international negotiating position around these policies.

Read more

The Practice and Politics of Regulation: Regulatory Governance in Indian Electricity

Summary

This volume examines how Indian electricity regulators in three states – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi – function in practice. The goal is to contribute to debates on the role of regulators in electricity reform and on the institution of regulation in India. Drawing on extensive interviews with regulators, government and stakeholders, the authors explore the regulatory decision-making process. They develop insights into the influence of politics, public participation, and the reform context on outcomes, and the implications of each for future evolution of regulatory institutions in India. This book is useful to policy-makers in utility sectors, electricity experts, regulators from a range of sectors and academics and NGOs interested in delivery of public services.

Read more