Village electrification programme in India

India has about 96,000 villages still to be electrified. About 20,000 of these may be in remote and difficult areas, which cannot be electrified by conventional grid extension. The Indian Ministry of non-conventional energy sources has taken up a programme to electrify all such villages through renewable energy sources. Solar photovoltaic technology will have an important role in this programme, which may cover about a million households. The paper describes the Indian programme and its status. Two case studies from the Sunderbans and Ladakh region are also given.