Congress have won vote of confidence

• The congress government led by prime minister Dr. Manmohan singh have won the vote of confidence motion.
• The nuclear deal will open a new era in Indian power sector.
• The most obvious is nuclear power. France and Russia have had nuclear cooperation agreements with India ready for months, waiting only for the green light from the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group. General Electric and Westinghouse are reported to have $14 billion worth of agreements in the pipeline for setting up power plants.
• Within a year of the formalities being completed, agreements for setting up 50,000 MW of nuclear power plants should be in place. Also, the completion of the agreement and anticipation of vastly increased FDI would renew the confidence of Indian and foreign investors and raise share prices.
• In the longer run, India has no option but to tap FDI for the power sector. India’s current power generating capacity of around 180,000 MW is short of its needs by at least 30,000 MW. If it wishes to maintain a long term growth rate of eight per cent, then even after allowing for increases in energy efficiency, it will have to double its generating capacity every ten years. By 2028, therefore, it will have to add around 630,000 MW of power generating capacity, of which all but around 50,000 MW would have to be thermal-based.