Category: World Service
Date: 11.02.2006
Printable version
91Èȱ¬ Business Correspondent Mark Gregory travels the length and breadth of India investigating the country's energy issues.
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His reports - ranging from power cuts to power theft - will feature in World Business Report daily at 16.30 GMT between Saturday 11 and Saturday 18 February 2006.
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It is part of the 91Èȱ¬ World Service Fuelling the Future mini-season which explores energy consumption around the world.
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India has the fastest rising consumption of electricity of any country besides China.
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It is buildingÌýnew power stations at a quarter of the rate of China with an estimated cost of 275 billion dollars over the next 25 years and Mark explores where this money is likely to come from.
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World Business Report visits Trombay, a massive power station complex near Mumbai where Mark speaks to Adi Engineer, the CEO of India's largest private sector power firm that runs it, Tata Power.
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Adi discusses with Mark how India plans to double its power generating capacitty by 2010, and quadruple it within 25 years.
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Mark will also bring the voices of consumers who complainÌýthat companies like Tata Power bring higher fuel bills but no improvementÌýin the service.
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Mark interviews Delhi Transport Minister, Parvez Hashmi, who discusses an initiative to improve air quality in Delhi.
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He travels to the city of Jansi which has a scheme called DesiÌýPower which aims to generate power from waste and other immediately available materials.
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Mark interviews Sunita Narain, one of India's leading environmental thinkers, on what can be done to lessen the environmental impact of India's rush to find new sources of power.
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Mark also visits The Energy and Resources Institute, an Indian environmental organisation at the centre of India's debate about appropriate energy and minimising emissions.
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Power cuts in the fast expanding city of Gurgaon, near Delhi, are an ever present danger, and Mark speaks to businesses affected by them including the owner of a property company selling luxury flats.
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India has reportedly got the highest rate of power theft across the world, particularly in Delhi.
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Fifty per cent of the country's electricity is effectively stolen by the poor, the rich and big businesses.
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Mark accompanies a power company inspector as he tries to crack down on this huge problem for India.
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The 91Èȱ¬ World Service Fuelling the Future mini-season looks at the production and consumption of energy, the intersection of energy and policy as well as global development and its consequences.
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Fuelling the Future will weigh up arguments for and against different energy sources, assess their effect on the environment and consider viable alternatives to relying on oil, coal and nuclear power.
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The week-long season starts Saturday 11 February.
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