Dynamics of rural energy access in India: An assessment

Balachandra, P (2011) Dynamics of rural energy access in India: An assessment. In: Energy, 36 (9). pp. 5556-5567.

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Abstract

India's rural energy challenges are formidable with the presence of majority energy poor. In 2005, out of a rural population of 809 million, 364 million lacked access to electricity and 726 million to modern cooking fuels. This indicates low effectiveness of government policies and programs of the past, and need for a more effective approach to bridge this gap. However, before the government can address this challenge, it is essential that it gain a deeper insight into prevailing status of energy access and reasons for such outcomes. Toward this, we perform a critical analysis of the dynamics of energy access status with respect to time, income and regions, and present the results as possible indicators of effectiveness of policies/programmes. Results indicate that energy deprivations are highest for poorest households with 93% depending on biomass for cooking and 62% lacking access to electricity. The annual growth rates in expansion in energy access are gradually declining from double digit growth rates experienced 10 years back to just around 4% in recent years. Regional variations indicate, on an average, cooking access levels were 5.3 times higher in top five states compared to bottom five states whereas this ratio was 3.4 for electricity access. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Energy
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Keywords:	Energy access;Rural energy;Poverty;Energy policy
Department/Centre:	Division of Interdisciplinary Sciences > Management Studies
Date Deposited:	03 Nov 2011 08:40
Last Modified:	03 Nov 2011 08:40
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/41661

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