Abstract
Despite concerted efforts, several plans and policies of the government addressing rural electrification remained unrealized since India’s independence. Although India attained near‐complete grid connectivity in 2018, the problem of inconsistent, unreliable and unaffordable electricity persists, expressly in remote and rural areas. This paper conceptualizes issues of rural electrification in India as a ‘Wicked Problem’ – a systems thinking approach used vastly for understanding complex and multidimensional aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The problem is characterized as a sub‐target of SDG 7 i.e. universal energy access. The stakeholders of rural electrification in India were approached ‐ their feedback was mapped in the power‐interest matrix. A causal loop diagram was prepared that helped in the identification of various themes through balancing and reinforcing loops. This study makes a methodological contribution to conceptual analysis prompting decision‐making through mental models over existing frameworks used for addressing rural electrification in India.
This study is part of doctoral thesis completed at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi with supervisors Prof. M.P. Gupta and Prof. Sushil; and the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI). The work at MITEI was undertaken with supervisors Prof. Ignacio J. Perez‐Arriaga and Prof. Robert Stoner under Fulbright‐Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowship 2018‐19 awarded to Payal Dey by the United States‐India Educational Foundation (USIEF). The authors thank senior officials, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India and representatives of Mlinda in Jharkhand, India. A part of the paper was presented in the 9th Fred Riggs Symposium on scholarship by Prof. Meghna Sabharwal, and comments provided by panel discussant, Prof. Alasdair Roberts.
