New power play

The draft proposal may not address discom losses

A draft scheme by the power ministry represents the Narendra Modi government’s second attempt to tackle the chronic losses of state power distribution companies (discoms), via a Rs 3.12-trillion reform programme that involves cost-sharing between the Centre and the states and is linked to loss-reduction targets. This scheme differs from the 2015 Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), which allowed the state governments to take over the liabilities of their discoms in return for meeting targets, such as reducing technical losses, expanding metering, and so on over five years (the states, in turn, issued bonds to fund this debt). The current