Energy & Infrastructure
Free study material · concepts, shortcuts & solved questions
Energy schemes chase universal, affordable, and efficient power (UJALA for efficient bulbs, Saubhagya for last-mile electrification, PM Surya Ghar for rooftop solar); infrastructure schemes chase coordinated, faster project execution (Gati Shakti as the unifying planning layer over Sagarmala's ports and Bharatmala's highways). This is one of the more ministry-diverse categories in the book — Power, New & Renewable Energy, Road Transport & Highways, Shipping/Ports, and Commerce & Industry (DPIIT, which houses Gati Shakti) all appear.
| Scheme | Year | Ministry | One-liner objective |
|---|---|---|---|
| UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) | 2015 | Power | Distribute low-cost LED bulbs to cut household electricity consumption and cost |
| Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) | 2015 | Power | Rural electrification and feeder separation for continuous power supply to villages |
| Sagarmala Programme | 2015 | Ports, Shipping & Waterways | Port-led development — modernise ports and improve port connectivity/logistics |
| Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) | 2015 | Power | Financial and operational turnaround of loss-making state power distribution companies |
| Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) | 2017 | Power | Last-mile universal household electrification, especially rural and BPL households |
| Bharatmala Pariyojana | 2017 | Road Transport & Highways | Umbrella highway programme — economic corridors, border/coastal roads, expressways |
| PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan | 2021 | Commerce & Industry (DPIIT) | Unified digital platform integrating 16+ ministries' infrastructure planning to cut logistics costs |
| National Logistics Policy | 2022 | Commerce & Industry (DPIIT) | Reduce logistics cost as % of GDP and improve India's logistics ranking |
| Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana | 2024 | New & Renewable Energy | Subsidised rooftop solar for 1 crore households, targeting up to 300 free units of electricity/month |
| National Green Hydrogen Mission | 2023 | New & Renewable Energy | Position India as a global hub for green hydrogen production and export |
PM Gati Shakti, launched 13 October 2021, is best understood not as a scheme that builds anything itself but as a coordination layer — a GIS-based digital platform overlaying the infrastructure plans of over a dozen ministries (Railways, Roads, Ports, Power, Petroleum, Telecom, and more) so that, for instance, a road isn't dug up right after being laid because a telecom cable project wasn't accounted for. Sagarmala (port-led development) and Bharatmala (road-led development) are its two most-tested "component programme" predecessors and are easy to swap in a rushed answer — remember "Sagar" = sea/ports, "Bharatmala" = a garland of roads across the land.
UJALA, launched January 2015 by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL, a joint venture of PSUs under the Power Ministry), is frequently cited for having driven down LED bulb prices dramatically through bulk procurement — a market-transformation success story often paired with Saubhagya (2017), which completed last-mile household electrification specifically for the roughly 4 crore un-electrified households (mostly BPL) that broader rural electrification schemes like DDUGJY hadn't reached.
Memory hook — "Sagar and Bharat, under one Gati Shakti roof": Sagarmala (2015, ports/sea) and Bharatmala (2017, roads/land) are separate, older umbrella programmes that PM Gati Shakti (2021) later folded into one unified digital planning layer alongside everything else — Gati Shakti is the roof, not a third garland.
Practice Recall: Before reading on, name which of Sagarmala and Bharatmala deals with ports versus highways, and which ministry runs each.
Answer: Sagarmala (2015) — port-led development, Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways. Bharatmala (2017) — highway/road corridor development, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.