Power for growth

Draft Bill aims to address the fault lines in the sector

The Indian economy was slowing even before the nationwide lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19. As the curbs are being lifted in a phased manner, various pre-existing fault lines in the economy can impede recovery. One such problem area is the state of the power sector. The debt of distribution companies (discoms), for instance, has gone back to the pre-UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) levels and they owe about Rs 90,000 crore to power producers. The lockdown is likely to have worsened their finances significantly because of lower demand, particularly from the industrial se­ctor, which is used