Abstract
Electricity is the basic need for individuals, households and industries. It is used for everyday life activities by the households, agricultural activities, commercial buildings and industries. The per capita electricity consumption is a proxy indicator growth and development status of a region. All the north eastern states consume per-capita electricity lesser than the national average except Sikkim. The per capita consumption of electricity by Nagaland, Assam and Manipur is nearly just one-third of the national average. Notably, these three north eastern states consume just 40 percent of per capita electricity compared to the highest consumer state Meghalaya. The present study is an evaluation of the per-capita electricity consumption trend and inequality amongst the north-eastern states of India using Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve for two different time periods i.e. 2007 and 2017. We find that Tripura’s annual linear growth rate of per-capita electricity consumption is the highest (3 percent) while that of Meghalaya is the least (1 percent) and the other five states are growing equally at the rate of 2 percent. The Gini coefficient is found to be decreasing from 0.137 in 2007 to 0.122 in 2017. We conclude that the level of inequality is reducing among north eastern states of India though the per-capita consumption of electricity is less than the national average.
Highlights
1 Energy is the lifeblood of the global economy and the key input to almost all the goods and services of the modern world (Singh & Vashishtha, 2020)
We find that Tripura’s annual linear growth rate of per-capita electricity consumption is the highest (3 percent) while that of Meghalaya is the least (1 percent) and the other five states are growing at the rate of 2 percent
3.1 Trend of per-capita electricity consumption, NE States Meghalaya is the largest per-capita electricity consumer while Manipur, Tripura, Assam and Nagaland are at the bottom amongst the north-eastern states of India
Summary
Access to modern energy is believed to be a prerequisite for sustainable development, poverty alleviation and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (Quedraogo, 2013). The sustainable development goal 7(SDG7) states that there should be universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy forms (UNDP, 2015). This SDG 7 is a pre-condition for economic development, poverty alleviation (SDG 1) and reducing inequalities (SDG 10) as the progress on SDG 7 can be seen as a means towards achieving other SDGs and the principle of “Leave no one behind” (UNDP, 2018).
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