Energy access: Are you being served?

Just as poverty can no longer be assessed only based on incomes, several metrics matter to understand energy poverty

India has made remarkable progress in recent years in extending energy access to hundreds of millions of people. The supply-side push has bridged the gap between political promises and policy execution. Now, we have to bridge the gap between policy execution and lived reality.

When the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in 2015, India had about 40 million households without electricity connection and more than 100 million homes used firewood and cowdung cakes for cooking. India had the dubious distinction of being home to the world’s largest number of energy-poor citizens. 

Then came a big push. Under the Saubhagya scheme, launched in