The Politics Of Smart-Up India

- PR Ramesh

A recent conference At The Ashok in the Capital on an ambitious energy efficient irrigation scheme mooted by the Government saw a motley crew of participants and potential consumers. Many of them were different from the usual corporate honchos one sees at such gatherings. They were farmers who had come from various parts of the country to listen to Power Minister Piyush Goyal, who promised that the Government would invest some Rs 75,000 crore over the next five years to procure and distribute 30 million sophisticated pumpsets. As officials of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL, a JV of NTPC Ltd, Power Finance Corp Ltd, Rural Electrification Corp Ltd and Power Grid Corp of India Ltd) proceeded to explain that the cost of the pumps would be recovered by the end of the scheme period through power savings of around 37 per cent annually, food and agri producers queried, contested, argued, explained, computed and nodded. Many of those at the conference were ‘smart’ farmers, growing what would once have been considered too risky—from ice lettuce and mushrooms to orchids and lilies. Bearing not the remotest resemblance to the impoverished, burdened, helpless farmer of the celluloid epic, Mother India, they were at ease with high-tech phones, quick number crunching and spot decision taking.