Organizational reform in Gujarat’s utility, lessons by Madhavi Mehta

Ahmedabad, 12 March 2013

This presentation by Madhavi Mehta is not superbly captured in video, but still it is worth watching due to its content that covers the story of transformation of Gujarat’s power sector. We picked up this video from Youtube. The presentation was made at IWMI Tata partners’ meet organised at Anand in November 2012, Madhavi Mehta examines the management changes in the Gujarat power utilities and describes how they revitalized service delivery. Mehta explains the various management changes including unbundling of distribution companies, and separation of feeders. The results of an analysis of the restraining and driving forces involved in this transformation are presented.

In this talk presented at the IWMI-Tata annual partners’ meet organised at Anand in November 2012, Tushaar Shah discusses ways of dealing with the energy-irrigation nexus by managing groundwater and electricity jointly.
The talk begins with a discussion of the origins and nature of the groundwater economy, with a focus on the drivers of this economy. Tushaar Shah postulates that removing power subsidies and/or metering power will drastically decrease groundwater exploitation.Various methods of managing wasteful power consumption and controlling the present anarchy of power use are discussed in detail.Gujarat’s experience with the Jyotirgram programme is discussed.

In this talk presented at the IWMI-TATA Annual Partners’ meet at Anand, Gujarat in November 2012, Alka Palrecha presents information on the use of wastewater for irrigation, along with the water supply and sanitation status in major cities of Gujarat. Both treated and untreated sewage is discharged into rivers. Throughout the country, farmers living downstream of cities use this for irrigation, and describe it as ‘sewage farming’. The talk takes a detailed look at wastewater irrigation including the extent of irrigation, existing institutionalization, and pros and cons. Considering the popularity -and inevitable nature- of this practice, it is necessary to stop ignoring it. Incorporation of farmers’ needs in the design of STPs and also of taking cognizance of any possible health hazards is necessary now and will be even more so in the near future.

This talk presented at the IWMI-TATA Annual Partners’ meet at Anand, Gujarat in November 2012 explores the reasons for GGRC (The Gujarat Green Revolution Company), the primary one of which is to create an efficient delivery mechanism. The origins, goals and mechanisms of GGRC are explained. Data management systems using a tablet to streamline inspections and map them is being looked into in the near future.

In this talk presented at the IWMI Tata partners’ meet organised at Anand in November 2012, Aditi Mukherji presents the results of a study conducted by IWMI in Punjab and Karnataka.This talk begins with an overview of the ‘energy-irrigation nexus’ in India. It then describes the results of an attempt made with the support of the world bank to provide direct farm subsidy.

In this talk presented at the IWMI Tata partners’ meet organised at Anand in November 2012, Nisha Nair speaks of the impact of the malpractices committed by farmers to cope with seasonal demand, the impacts of these and of the measures taken by the state to deal with this ‘power anarchy’. Nair reports on the results of a survey conducted to determine the extent and nature of these impacts.The water market, where farmers buy power and sell water is described, as is the Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal experience.

In this talk presented at the IWMI-Tata annual partners’ meet organised at Anand in November 2012, Parmershwar Hegde presents the experiences of ENZEN Global Solutions in providing energy-efficient pumps in 39 villages in Doddaballapur through a program titled ‘Agricultural demand-side management’, itself a part of the WENEXA program. The program aims not only at increasing energy efficiency, but also upgrading the power distribution network, farmer consultancy, training farmers, initiating water use efficiency measures and watershed activities.