Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has announced a $2.5bn scheme to bring electricity to all homes in the country by December 2018.
India’s government will fund the project, which will be carried out by the state-run Rural Electrification Corporation. Modi pledged that poor households would be connected to a clean energy source without charge.
Not all homes will be connected to a national grid, however. In some cases solar power systems will be given to villages to replace petrol generators.
The Straits Times comments that the project would help boost demand in the Indian economy. at a time when growth has slowed to 5.7%.
Modi, who will be seeking re-election in 2019, promised to electrify all Indian homes in his 2014 campaign. He said then: "Some 40 million of the total 250 million households still don’t have power, which means 25% of people are living in the 18th century."
Image: Narendra Modi in Singapore (Wikimedia Commons)
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Would that so many developing countries, mine included, set themselves the very same target! Neither Sun nor Wind ever send us any accounts for their services!!