Huge blackout fuels doubts about India’s economic ambitions

Power was restored in India on Wednesday after two days of blackouts that had cast a huge shadow over the nation’s economic ambitions.

On Tuesday, the overburdened electrical grid had collapsed across the whole of northern and eastern India, depriving more than half the
country, or around 600 million people, of power. It was the largest blackout in global history in terms of the number of people affected —
about 10 percent of the world population.

“Superpower India, RIP,” said the banner headline in The Economic Times newspaper.

The crisis had reinforced concerns that industry leaders had been raising for years  — that the nation’s horribly inefficient power sector could undermine its long-term economic ambitions.

More generally, it sharpened fears about India’s failure to invest in the infrastructure needed to support its rapidly growing economy, in sharp contrast to neighboring China. It also destroyed any lingering hope that the nation’s entrepreneurial spirit and vibrant private sector could somehow deliver a significantly brighter future without a dramatic improvement in the way the country is governed.

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