CANSAULIM, GOA India has scaled up its electrification drive to target every household and shed the tag of being a nation with surplus supply to distribution companies but having one-third of its population without access to energy. The government ’s shift of focus from village electrification to last mile connectivity will be helped by fiscal sops to states and launch of an interactive web platform that will connect consumers with the brass of distribution companies, officials said.The government has decided to electrify 5.98 crore un-electrified households by December 2018 and has offered finance to states from Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) on no profit, no loss basis. This is a shift from the present rural electrification programme where a village is declared electrified if 10% of households and all public places have electricity access.“An interactive web application will be launched in July to track the progress of electrification of these six-crore households. This will be a game changer,” said Dinesh Arora, executive director of REC. Power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal has announced that by December 2018 all Indian citizens will have access to electricity connections, while by March 2019, power will be available 24*7 to all, ahead of the earlier target of March 2022.The target to electrify 18,452 villages, barring Maoist-infested areas and difficult terrains, has been advanced by at least five months to December 2016. During the two-day meet with state power ministers, Goyal asked them to go on mission mode to light up all Indian households and assured funds on no profit, no loss basis from PFC and REC in case states run short of finance to lay the necessary infrastructure.He also allowed states the flexibility to use funds allocated under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY) for household electrification. A corpus of Rs 38,000 crore is available for the scheme.The Centre will soon launch an extension of its existing dashboard and mobile app ‘Garv’ on rural electrification to provide real-time data on progress of all households.REC has been tasked to build database of all sanctioned villages, identify progress of electrification in all villages and to prepare a village-wise plan for 100% household electrification. Goyal has asked the state distribution companies to launch campaigns offering early electricity connections at concessional rates.The GIS-enabled web application will have extensive information on infrastructure availability that can be later used to promote other government programmes including LPG distribution. It will help consumers interact with distribution companies for getting connections and for restoration of supply.