Kindly light
Modi’s complete electrification is an illusion
In the last five decades, the number of poor has decreased considerably. Or so the government has thus declared which does not mean that there are no poor. Instead, the government has changed the criteria for identifying the poor. For example, the government identifies a person whose daily income is below Rs 30 as poor and gives him a BPL card. But what if the government changes the criteria that a person whose daily income is below Rs 20 could be considered as below poverty line.Naturally, the number of poor will come down on paper. It is a clear strategy to remove the poor in the country in the records by reducing their number through a different criteria instead of alleviating the poverty.
Very recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared that electrification of all villages in the country was completed. If we felt happy thinking that all houses in the country were electrified, then it means we are cheated. This is just a symbolic statement and it does not mean that the entire country was freed from darkness. It is not so easy to do in the country dominated by villages. It is just a magic of statistics.
Three factors expose the charade of the programmes announced by the government. As the first factor, out of total houses in a village, at least 10 percent of residents need to get power connection, and public utility places like schools, panchayat offices, health centres and community centres should get power facility to declare that a village is completely electrified. As per the government, the village is given 100 percent power facility. But the government data clearly shows that more than 31 million houses were not yet given power. In states like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam, more than 50 percent of houses were not given power. This is the situation even after four years of BJP which came to power by assuring power to all villages. Among 12 states, more than 25 percent of houses are need to be given power connection. When this is the situation, how can we believe if Modi announced uninterrupted power facility by 2019?
More over, complete electrification is a continuous process. When the country was given freedom, it was under complete darkness. Not even 5 percent of the houses were given power facility. Because of the development concept and programmes of Nehru and subsequent prime ministers, the villages have seen the light in phased manner. But now, Modi is trying to get the credit. This means, before Modi coming to power, all the villages were in darkness and under his regime, all the villages were given electrification.
When we introspect, only 1500 villages were given power during 1947. But even those villages were not completely electrified. Even though one or two houses had got power connections in the village, such village was declared as electrified village. During the UPA tenure between 2005 and 2014, total 10,82,000 villages were given power connection and more than 2 crore houses were electrified. Among them 19 million houses were given free electricity. When Modi declared that he would give electricity to all villages, there were only 18452 villages which were not electrified. The UPA government had give power connection to on an average 12,030 villages annually. But the Modi government has given power to just 4842 villages. So, there is nothing to celebrate. When compared to previous government, Modi’s development is very slow. Moreover, the power connection is not yet completed, but the NDA government has earmarked Rs 16,000 crore for this purpose. The programme cannot be successful if the money is reserved. Instead of creating illusion or fooling people through statistics, the Modi government should take an honest step to light up every house. Nowadays, the entire country has been facing the power problem. The power distribution companies are not getting sufficient coal. India has been dependent on coal for producing more than 60 percent of it’s power. But on the other side, the production of coal is declining. This would have a negative impact on the power generation. Are the villages lit up just from electricity connections without providing power?
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Cong takes swipe at PM over India not being part of US-led 'Pax Silica' grouping
New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
