We crib about the shortage of electricity in India.By the end of this year, more than 16,000 megawatts of new electricity capacity will come on line.

We crib about the shortage of electricity in India, but forget that many projects which started a few years ago, will come on stream soon. By the end of this year, more than 16,000 megawatts of new electricity capacity will come on line. More will come on stream through the next few years.

This will change many things. Today, villages get electricity - if they get it at all - only after dark. A lot of pumpsets are switched on in the first hours of the day. With power getting more plentiful, rural India should get electricity through the day.

Once that happens, small scale industrial units which need farm inputs, can get established in the hinterland, rather than in cities. Once these farm-industry units get started, their operations will add a few percentage points to our growth numbers.

Even though things like solar energy are highly subsidized by the government, you won't find folks in cities using it. But venture out - to places in the Himalayas or on islands in the mighty Brahmaputra - and you'll find plenty of people using solar panels connected to battery units to store electricity at daytime for use at night. Ironically, the spread of clean energy is being driven by the absence of power from the national grid.

Most forecasts about India's growth to 2020 are reassuringly positive. But that's no guarantee that this growth will take place and boost the well-being of more and more Indians. We'll need very smart policies geared to our peculiar needs, implemented well, to get us there.