Its one example is Uttar Pradesh which is lagging behind other states on its 2022 solar capacity target of 10.7 GW, the second largest solar target among all Indian states, according to institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (EEFA). It also said that urgent action is needed to get back to the tracks, not only for the state to meet its own targets but also to avoid slowing down of the progress towards India’s target of 175 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2022. As of October, 2021, UP had installed renewable energy capacity of 4.3 GW, which is only 30 percent of its total capacity commissioning target of 14.1 GW by 2022. Electricity policy analysts have observed that Uttar Pradesh has to catch up a lot as it has missed a lot since its solar capacity target was 10.7 GW, and only 19 percent target has been achieved. While UP accounts for a tenth of India’s need for renewable energy, it has to struggle longer. Obviously at the root is the insolvency and default by the government towards public sector units.

This only shows how employment opportunities are shrinking and public sector units are facing erosion. Lack of funds, and also lack of initiative point towards further nose dive as the privatisation measures continue. It was also pointed out during the conciliation meeting in Delhi between the bank unions led by AIBEA and the finance minister on December 15 that “...Wilful default by corporates dragged public sector banks to crisis.” The one glaring example is nonperforming assets getting accumulated and the major share belonging to corporates. All these NPAs had to be written off as there was no other way to yield the desired effect. It has been clearly proved that it was not the nationalisation of banks that had failed the people, it was the wilful default of corporates and big business houses that dragged the banks into crisis and along with that the economy of the country.

Each step towards privatisation leaves the country not only more impoverished, but also takes away jobs and any possibility of regaining it. Added to it is the tax money lost that was contributed by the citizens of the country for nation building. There are neither details nor any accountability on part of the government about this usurpation of people’s hard earned money. Minimum the government could do to keep its accountability at least in some order was to present a white paper on the entire process involved. But then disinvestment has become so common that it has become almost the order of the day. All basics for industrial production that cater to the need of our lives like steel, coal, energy, water, fuel, food, medicine are placed on the show windows for sale, that too with an agreeable price to the satisfaction of the corporate buyer, who is not interested in the investment made towards the initiative, but only in the finance involved, Financialisation, a new stage in the capital formation, has been joining the new economic world order ruining whatever is left in the process of nation building. As the towers, symbolising our achievements, are falling one by one, jobs are vanishing. Starvation, epidemics and the gloom has been swallowing the common people’s lives.

Yet all is not lost. There are reasons for hope. Women have made a choice for the most difficult jobs available to keep the life going. They have entered the coal mines till now ‘no go’ for women and there too, they have joined the blasting team! They have thrown the streotypes in the air and accepted the challenge. Fifteen women are part of the blasting crew, at Balram open cast project of Hingula area and undertaking the crucial job of executing controlled blasting of 12 to 15 ton explosives everyday. Risk, hazards and hardships could not stop these women from taking up the jobs. Six million tonnes per anum coal output by Balram Coal Production is itself a testimony to the undefinable optimism leading towards a new dawn which is again a break from all stereotypes hitherto existing! (IPA Service)