India's power discoms face another reckoning as Centre mulls fresh reforms

After four failed reform drives, a new plan aims to rescue India's debt-laden power discoms through privatisation, accountability and long-term financial fixes

For the electricity sector in India, there have been few issues more chronic than the problem of high losses at the level of power distribution companies, commonly called discoms, and their huge debt pile. The story of a sick and unsustainable power distribution sector is as old and sticky in India as the sector itself. Multilateral banks and investors, who track the sector methodically for its overall health, routinely say that if there is one power sector reform that is the most urgent to implement, it is discom debt restructuring.

 

The problem 

On the face of it, it looks like