India's Power Paradox

In global energy markets, India takes third place in a few key metrics. The country has the world’s third-largest electricity generation system, after China and the United States. It is the world’s third-largest power generator, and it is also the world’s third-largest carbon dioxide emitter, again behind China and the U.S. in both measures. In one category, though, it comes in first: India has the world’s largest population without reliable access to electricity, about 250 million of its 1.3 billion people. Increased access to electricity is an infrastructure matter, but it is also a technological one -- and technology is both enabling electrification and blunting its growth at the same time.

First, on the positive side: Incandescent light bulbs are being replaced by light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, which consume much less power. India has about 770 million of the older, inefficient bulbs, and as of Thursday had installed 253 million LEDs, according to the government’s excellent National Ujala Dashboard, which tracks deployment of bulbs, tubelights and efficient fans: