Indian blackout: A bitter fruit of neglect of livelihood

Edited and Translated by Yao Chun, People's Daily Online

The Indian blackout is a clear alarm that what serious consequences can a country face if it doesn’t pay attention to people's livelihood.

At about 1 p.m. July 30 the three major electricity distributors of India successively paralyzed and the electricity supply was cut in more than half of the country. 670 million people were affected by this large-scale power failure which was the most serious of India in recent 11 years.

The India blackout was caused by the increasing electricity demand driven by the rapid economic development while the power generation equipment and the power supply circuit are out of date resulting in Indian power-supply system’s failure which can’t meet the country’s increasing demand.

In fact, Indian poor electricity supply and other infrastructures are the results of its mixed-economy system in which the public and private economy coexist. India has put unbalanced emphasis on the development of its industry, especially heavy industry, leading to the inconsistent development between industry and agriculture, unreasonable industrial structure as well as the under-investment in its infrastructure including its power supply.

More special coverages