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Indian Economic Policy

Notes significant way. The Centre for Science and Environment, an enlightened voluntary organisation, therefore,
pleads for a national cooking energy policy : “If the Government wants to help meet the basic needs of our
population without causing wholesale environmental destruction, an integrated national cooking energy
policy is an imperative. If the Government fails to come up with an implementable policy or lacks the will
to implement one, the results will be disastrous for the people and the environment.”

At present around 80 million tonnes out of a total estimated output of 450 to 500
million tonnes of agricultural wastes and residues are used as fuel for cooking purposes.

19.3 Power

Electric power, which is one form of energy, is an essential ingredient of economic development and,
it is required for commercial and non-commercial uses. Commercial uses of power refer to the use of
electric power in industry, agriculture and transport. Non-commercial uses include electric power
required for domestic lighting, cooking, use of domestic mechanical gadgets like the refrigerators, air
conditioners, etc. With rapid growth of population in India and with the increase in the use of modern
gadgets in daily life, it is quite natural that the demand for electricity for domestic use should grow
at a fast rate. Table 5 explains the pattern of utilisation of electric power produced and supplied by
public power sector units or public utilities.
Table 5. Pattern of electricity consumption (utilities)
(per cent)
1950-51 1970-71 2008-09

Industry 63 68 37.1
Agriculture 4 10 20.4
Railway traction 7 3 2.2
Public lighting and
commercial 13 10 15.6
Domestic use 13 9 24.7
Total 100 100 100

Source : Economic Survey, 2009-10 CSO (2010) * Provisional.
A marked feature is the increasing use of electricity in agriculture. With programmes of rural
electrification, the demand for power for lift irrigation and energisation of pumpsets has increased
during recent years, from 4 per cent to 22 per cent. The establishment of new industries like iron and
steel, machine tools, engineering, fertilisers, etc., and the expansion of capacity of consumer goods
industries have led to considerable increase in the consumption of power in India. But it will be
observed that the share of industry in the total utilisation of power has come down from 68 per cent
in 1970-71 to 37.1 per cent in 2009-10. This does not mean that industrialisation has slowed down, nor
does it imply that industrial units are shifting to other sources of fuel. Many large, industrial units
have set up, in a big-way, their own captive power plants, instead of depending upon the inadequate
and often undependable public utilities. It is estimated that non-utilities (the private sector power
units) generated 109.7 billion kwh of power which was consumed by industries.
It may be observed that the consumption of power by domestic consumers has increased rapidly,
However, consumption of electricity by railways and for public lighting as a proportion of total
consumption has declined.
Sources of electric power
There are three main sources of generation of electric power, viz., hydel power thermal power, and
nuclear power.

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