Power discoms must be made viable: Niti chief Panagariya

The National Institution for Transforming India Aayog ((NITI) will work with states and central ministries to help electricity distribution companies become financially stable, NITI vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya said today.

"Part of the solution to India's energy problem lies with the energy distribution companies of states, which is extremely critical. Discoms are financially in an extremely weak state and if they are bankrupt, the producers will not trust them," Panagariya said.

"This would be addressed with central ministries and NITI Aayog will play this role," he said at a workshop in Delhi jointly organised by the Paris-based International Energy Agency and NITI Aayog, with support from energy think-tank TERI.

"Energy demands for India are going to rise as it becomes richer. I expect India's energy demands to grow leaps and bounds as time goes by," he added.

Panagariya said India's energy demands are going to grow because it has a growth potential of 8-10 per cent over the next 10-15 years.

"At an average growth rate of 8-10 percent India is likely to be a $8 trillion economy in next 15 years as compared to $2 trillion to rival the Chinese economy. But this would come with a huge increase in India's energy demands," he added.

On the consequence of large energy consumption for climate change, Panagariya said India is not the largest polluter, abd much of the responsibility for lies with the west, where energy consumption is very high.

"At the end of the day, India is not the largest polluter, India by any stretch of imagination has not been a mass polluter, much of the responsibility lies with the western countries," he said.