Despite decades of power reforms, discoms still an area of darkness

The emphasis for these discoms is to only ensure power supply reaches to the farthest corner of their grid. Quoting Power Finance Corporation data, Barnwal notes

A remarkable study on the state of electricity distribution companies (discoms) of India shows that instead of improving, the revenues these companies receive from their consumers has declined in a 12-year time frame. As more political parties ratchet up promises to make electricity free in an election-heavy year, this finding has huge implications for government finances. 

The study, jointly written by Prabhat Barnwal of Michigan State University and Nicholas Ryan of Yale University, also seems counter-intuitive, since one of the conclusions from the two-decade long power reforms is that the overall dues of these discoms have come down. “The Government