India suffered two consecutive power grid failures that plunged 700 million people into darkness and that is one tenth of the 7 Billion humanity on the planet. It's important to understand why there are huge opportunities in India for the global electricity industry…..
US media repeated this blackout news and pointed that none of the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) work was affected as these suppliers all need to have back-up generator supply to overcome this endemic risk. Indians were embarrassed given their sixth largest economy status in the world and to the credit of the Indians there are no reports of looting as in the New York power outage of 1977.
Adding insult to injury was the need for New Delhi to buy power from tiny neighboring Bhutan (the Happiness Country) just to start up the stranded Metro and clearly the Indian public is now planning big changes at their next elections. For the country has moved from basic election issues like food,clothing and shelter in the sixties and seventies ( in Hindi : Roti,Kapda,Makan) to the next level of Electricity,Roads and Drinking Water (In Hindi: Bijli,Sadak,Pani). Elections are certainly being lost if politicians are not able to deliver these infrastructure items. Ever since the unshackling of the Indian economy in the early 1990's the public energy and entrepreneurism is very high as is the endless internal consumer demand for everything. And without electricity you cannot run the computer and soon are unable to charge your all important cell phone.
"Electricity" is at very top of the electoral demands of the Indian public and you can be sure that all political parties have got the message after this massive blackout. And this means huge opportunity for global players, both large and small, and time to step up their India market efforts. And here are some thoughts about possible opportunities:
- Power Generation: Whether coal,water,wind or nuclear it's not just about your technology but your ability to deal with the travails of land acquisition for the plant. An upfront realization of the challenges here can help.
- Generation Technology: More digital, more compact the better. And don't worry about relatively low cost high skilled workers.
- Distribution: Has huge opportunity, consider wireless technology for billing, meter reading given the huge cell phone penetration.
- Pricing politics: The pricing of power is highly politicized with large voting groups of farmers always asking for subsidies from politicians. Having specialized dedicated folks to deal with all the vociferous demands of a vibrant democracy is probably a good idea.
In you are a foreign company already in India and in the power sector, you business is about to zoom! Contact StratoServe.