To power up growth, India must be rewired

印度电力系统如何拖垮“世界工厂”梦?

Economist

2026-01-15

26 分钟
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  • Whenever we talk about modernization

  • or a country that's really climbing the economic ladder,

  • our brains tend to default to the visible stuff.

  • The hardware.

  • Exactly, the hardware.

  • We picture the skyline.

  • We picture these gleaming new airport terminals with glass facades,

  • the eight-lane motorways just cutting through the countryside,

  • the high-speed trains that look like they just rolled out of a sci-fi movie.

  • And if you look at India right now, you see exactly that.

  • Visually, it's a nation that is building the future at absolute breakneck speed.

  • It is impressive.

  • I was looking at some of the recent drone footage

  • of the infrastructure projects there, and the scale is just staggering.

  • You can literally see the concrete being poured and the steel going up.

  • It really feels like a country in a hurry.

  • But on this show, there's a massive paradox here.

  • A really stark, almost confusing contrast.

  • Because while the surface looks shiny and modern and efficient,

  • if you peel back the layers and look at the actual energy grid,