Transformed India
per cent increase in India’s transmission capacity between 2014-17 alone.
PM Modi’s 2015 Independence Day speech aroused in people’s minds a deep care for India’s energy deprived citizens. As he set the task of electrifying India’s remotest villages in 1,000 days; the public remained deeply interested in the progress of this Herculean task. GARV fulfilled the need for a platform with village-wise progress reports, and GARV-II surpassed this with habitation-wise data down to the households. Transparency has helped us immensely as people’s scrutiny further energises the ‘Speed, Skill, and Scale’ mantra. We greatly value all inputs we receive from the people and the media. With GARV, public funds were saved as journalists highlighted the uninhabited villages. Making data more meaningful, GARV goes beyond listing and provides ‘Impact Study’ of villages. People get to know about on-the-ground impact through the number of shops, aata chakkis, appliances, etc. installed post-electrification.
While power purchase by DISCOMS was earlier mired in corruption, MERIT app and Vidyut Pravah have eliminated discretions and reduced costs. Over the next five years, MERIT is expected to save Rs. 20,000 crore in power procurement costs, reducing the consumers’ bills. UDAY and URJA go a step further by ranking performance of States/cities/ DISCOMS on several parameters.
The UJALA app has been instrumental in ensuring the fastest rollout of LED bulbs. This app, which is often quoted internationally, has a story behind its conception. At the end of a review meeting discussing coal block auctions after the Supreme Court cancelled 204 coal blocks, PM Modi asked me how many LED bulbs have been distributed so far. I did not have the current figure readily and said I will get back after checking. The PM then reminded me of the importance of regularly monitoring to ensure results and also fixing responsibility for enhanced performance. I got my team cracking to devise a portal where anytime, anywhere, anyone could check the number of LED bulbs rolled out. The result is not a mere status check on bulbs, but also the amount of CO2 emissions avoided, power saved, and money saved in people’s bills. It, in fact, became a popular app which, helped market the scheme across the country and enabled a rapid roll out and unprecedented success.
Shedding light on what happens underground, Mining Surveillance System (MSS) app, allows reporting of illegal mining, while Coal Mitra identifies the most efficient thermal power plants. ARUN provides a DIY (Do It Yourself ) guide for solar rooftop installations, and critical know-how about government incentives, costs and methods of installation, thereby removing barriers which inhibited a solar rooftop revolution in India. So many apps, so many different downloads! How does one discover the apps? How do we tell the public that these apps exist? Just give a missed call to 1-800-200-300-4. This is a common uniform number where all one has to do is give a missed call after which they will receive a link by which one can download the app of one’s interest.
By inviting public scrutiny through transparency and real time data in public domain, the Ministries of Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, are rebuilding people’s trust in government institutions. The beautiful and instructive phrase ‘Tamso Ma Jyotirgamaya” (lead us from darkness to light) guides the teams in all our Ministries. Through these apps, we aspire to remove the darkness of secrecy and corruption, and move towards the light of honesty and dedicated service for the benefit of all 125 crore Indians.