Power-Packed Performance

As head of Power Grid, Indu Shekhar Jha’s role is crucial to achieving the government’s ambitious energy objectives.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

Indu Shekhar Jha possesses a special ability to take people along with him. It is one that has stood him in good stead in his current position as chairman and managing director of Power Grid Corporation of India – the centrally owned public sector unit (PSU) that builds and maintains cross-country transmission lines – which he has held since November 2015. “In the last two years, one of my biggest achievements, I think, has been changing the mindset of the people who work with me,” he says. “This is what has enabled me to speed up the execution of projects and improve their quality. I treat everyone with respect, including the contractors who work for us.”

There was practically a tradition at Power Grid to treat contractors with disdain and delay their payments. Jha was aware of the practice, having been director (projects) at the company since September 2009, and once he took charge, he determined to break it. “Power Grid engineers are not supposed to erect towers or lay transmission lines – it is all done by contractors,” he says. “Contractors are crucial to our functioning and should be treated like business partners. Payment delays to them in turn lead to delays in project execution. Now every month we clear bills of more than ₹2,000 crore. The advice to our people, engineers and contractors alike is – maintain standards, maintain transparency, focus on the goal and respect time schedules.”