India may export electricity to Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh: Ambassador

India was considering exporting 500 megawatts of electricity to Pakistan, according to a twitter message by India’s Ambassador to the United States Nirupama Rao.

The ambassador had also tweeted that India was responding to the requests for power made by Nepal and Bangladesh.

Sections of the Indian public expressed a strong reaction to the tweets with opponents of the idea pointing out that India should cater to its own needs first before considering the needs of other countries.

According to the latest figures reported by the BBC Urdu website, India produces 170,000 megawatts of electricity annually whereas the domestic demand for electricity exceeds the supply.

Rao, who has also served as India’s foreign secretary, dispelled the impression that the export of electricity would create a shortfall in India, pointing out that 55,000 megawatts of electricity was added to the national grid between the 2007-2012 period, which includes 20,500 megawatts added in 2011-2012 alone.

She added that the capacity was being further augmented.

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