A day after some parts of India sweated it out in the searing heat and biting cold when its major grids collapsed, and just hours after engineers claimed that most of the power had been restored, the northern and eastern grids groaned, moaned and finally gave up the ghost leaving 600 million people — equivalent to the population of North America — without power.

It was one of India’s — and the world’s — biggest blackouts in a decade. The wheels of the economy that has already begun to slowdown came to a grinding halt as the grid failures left swathes of northern India — Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and J&K and the capital New Delhi — without power. It was chaos at its worst. All travel came to a standstill. There was gridlock on the streets and on railway lines and even water treatment plants had to be shut down.

Understanding India’s energy system is an exercise in futility. For years it has been running on empty. Bad planning, outdated infrastructure, grids fed on shoe-string budgets, unchecked theft of power, dwindling stock of much needed coal to power the grids (most of India’s energy is thermal) the infernal problem of corruption, random fixing of electricity charges, the continuous mass migration of people from villages and towns into cities, dubious distribution agencies and electricity boards deep in debt have all collectively contributed to the power failure. And, sadly, millions of Indians are yet to be connected to the national grid.

India’s energy needs have soared but every effort to set up new nuclear reactors to meet its rising demand has been embroiled in controversies. Nuclear energy in the country stills accounts for a measly three per cent of the current power supply and unless something is done about this — and soon— the country’s power crisis is only going deepen further.

Power is a basic neccessity and playing politics with it is dangerous. The power stations in India, even if they run at peak capacity, cannot meet the ever-rising demand. India needs to take a good hard look at its energy problems before the whole country is plunged into darkness. It needs to look at nuclear energy and turn to innovative technology to win the battle against corruption, high costs, bad infrastructure, bad management and limited energy resources. It also needs to opt for cutting-edge technologies and create an environment that is less exploitative and more conducive to generating much needed power.