Lack of power. I mean the ACUTE lack of power and exceedingly high prices of power in Punjab are pushing everything towards a devastating situation. I will discuss impact on Industry, Education, Information Technology and Agriculture here.
I am into IT, had tough time coping with power cuts when I was studying, have friends from manufacturing industry and I belong to traditional Punjab. So I can relate to many problems that Punjabis are facing due to power shortage.
Please do justify the post by providing your frank opinions.
Industry:
Already fighting the inflation, rise in fuel prices, industrialists are forced to use Gensets which are far more costlier than electricity (which is again getting costly). Government forces the industrialists to reduce working hours in peak demand season while they have to pay the same price to labor and employees. Economy of production is also lost due to lesser productive hours. All these conditions lead to non profitable business, less paid (and unhappy) labor, unstable businesses and tough competition from the neighbor states and imports.
Education:
Although much much profitable venture, there is no direct impact except the students belonging to lesser privileged families who cannot afford/have alternative energy sources. In the hard-to-live months of summer and post-rains humid period, the lack comfort of even a fan poses enough distraction that the level of concentration goes down considerably. This especially applies to the students of higher education and the ones preparing for competitive examinations.
During the night hours, either students don't get enough sleep or enough time to do late study or enough distractions due to power failures that it is enough to impact the students from Punjab gearing up for National competitive exams.
Given the high number of daily hours of power cuts, the above facts cannot be deemed inconclusive at all.
Information Technology:
IT no doubt survives on power! The online systems and development tasks, services and international collaboration all depend on the devices/equipment that needs 100% power supply.
Lack of power gives Punjabi IT industry a major cost-challenge. Moreover, IT has very small share in India, let alone Punjab. Most of the IT business flows in from international arenas. Lack of continuous power leads to poorer service as compared to the competing industry in other states.
A teleconference ending in the middle of a management meeting due to a power failure is not going to impress the international community at all. Leading to what? Lack of confidence and interest on the IT industry.
On the contrary, indirectly, use of backup equipment and alternative power sources impacts the IT industry much in the same way as other industries discussed above.
Its a well known fact that IT industry has not moved further northwards than Chandigarh due to this (infrastructure is another issue but not to be discussed here) reason. Anyone needs more explanations why IT Park, Mohali cannot pick up much big names in IT?
Agriculture:
Bread and butter of more than 75% of Punjab.
It is not that electricity is free for them that means there is enough of it for them. One water pump needs enough power to run the home equipment for around 5-10 households!
So if there are few of them around the place, enough power is needed to keep them running. Also, most of the time, the tube-wells are shared among various fields and households as well. The schedule of watering the crops are dependent on season and amount of rainfall. Also, various crops have varying demands. This causes a tight schedule for irrigation. The schedule also depends on the combination of crop needs, weather and number of fields and households sharing the tube-well.
Farmer community has been wailing for the power, even if paid, but at least it should be provided. When it is free, there is no accountability for anything. Neither the production, nor the consumption.
Realization:
Or is it?
Time to wake up for the govt? I think it has passed already!
Now that they have come up with the wonderful power plant projects to be completed in 2013. Advertising their ninth-stitch in full page newspaper advertisements. These plants are not to be completed in coming couple of years if we be optimistic. And the power they will generate will barely be enough to sustain the energy needs at that time.
How about the energy needs for five or say ten years later? Still no plans!
And the cherry on the cake is that they always come up with funny ideas to save electricity. For instance, shut down shopping malls earlier, open govt offices for shorter hours, shut down industries earlier (see above for repercussions of this), even compromise citizens' safety by shutting the street lights earlier at some places.
Why don't they just ask us to shut down all the electrical equipment and stop earning, studying, progressing, enjoying and live in caves? Seems like we will end up like this one day!
Till the fan turns, I sleep. Or I sleep at the office!
Good Night.
