20 yrs of privatised Delhi discoms: Leap in tech but feet tied in populism

A giant step forward in technology, but feet still shackled in populism

At the dawn of this century, the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi government of the time took the bold decision of privatising the power distribution business in the national capital. A similar model was shaping up only in two other cities — Ahmedabad and Surat. This made the Delhi model the largest and also the most politically sensitive.

During the two decades, Delhi’s electricity sector has never been out of the news. In the initial years, the Bharatiya Janata Party used it to attack Dikshit with charges of crony capitalism, and since 2013, it is a populist tool for the current Aam