India’s strong economic growth in the last decade has placed enormous demand on its energy resources. In spite of having the fifth largest electricity generation capacity in the world, the country faces a huge demand-supply mismatch. Though India’s per capita energy consumption has increased at 5.23% annually during the period 2006-2013, the level of per capita consumption is significantly lower than the world average (2977 kWh in 2011) and the national level target of 1,000 kWh set by the government. The country is lagging far behind its BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) peers and for India to achieve its targeted growth, electricity will play a vital role.
The report was released at the CII Karnataka Conference on Power held on 24-25 October, 2013 in Bangalore.