It is recognised by many that one of the main causes of India's
lack of progress in the rural areas is the inadequate and unreliable
electricity supply and modern energy services. No non-traditional
productive activities are possible without them. The record of the
last fifty years of rural development, therefore, reinforces the
special relevance to Gandhiji's vision of self-reliant villages.
Gandhiji's basic concept is even more valid today than it was during
his time and it stands a much better chance of success now for the
following reasons:
|
•
|
It has become painfully evident during the last
decade of liberalisation that it is well nigh impossible to
mobilise the enormous amounts of capital required for large
power stations to supply fossil fuel based electricity within
a foreseeable period to every Indian, to every large and medium
industries, to new rural micro-enterprises, to the agricultural
sector and the urban and rural public services.
|
|
•
|
Modern mature renewable energy systems are, on
the other hand, available now and can supply reliable and affordable
electricity, irrigation water and energy services at prices
which are competitive with non-subsidised conventional fossil
fuel based grid supplies and captive generation.
|
|
•
|
Many more technological solutions for local value
addition through small scale industries in villages are available
today than during Gandhiji's days. A host of traditional and
new agro-based industries and micro-enterprises can operate
profitably in villages if reliable electricity supply is available.
|
|
•
|
Local value addition of local resources, increased
farm productivity and "export" of traditional and
new products and services to nearby urban and peri-urban areas
will promote faster economic growth and create local employment
in villages. One such example is the supply of modern, village
processed, cooking fuel based on agro-residues to replace the
largely vanished fuel wood and fossil fuels.
|
|
•
|
Export of goods and services will increasingly
become an alternative to the poverty driven migration of the
village youth to city slums.
|
|
•
|
Investment in an EmPower Partnership Project in
a single villages is relatively small. Local investments will
be made in them by local groups and individuals if the projects
are seen to generate profits and jobs within a framework of
incentives from the government and support from the rural banking
system.
|
|
•
|
The liberalised economic regime and the political
framework of village Panchayats enable the government to promote
a long-term public-private partnership model for the financing
of the EmPower Partnership Projects. |
