Defining the 'energy needs' of the millions of economically challenged persons of India, a densely populated country with diversified socio cultural background, is very difficult. The livelihood options available before them are very limited and are mainly dominated by labor intensive farming practices and micro enterprises. Though the energy inputs in these low-tech 'production process of the masses' are much less compared to the capital intensive 'mass production process' of the affluent west, these limited livelihood options of the poor are not properly utilized due to lack of access to the minimum energy, required to run such economic activities.

In addition to meet the basic energy needs for cooking, lighting, entertainment, improved dwelling, transport etc, the minimum energy required for running small and micro enterprises, water pumps for small scale irrigation, health and education facilities provided on a community basis, et al constitute the 'energy needs' of the poor.

There was no dearth of fund and schemes to uplift economically challenged population. But these were not properly used due to lack of monitoring. Absence of a strong civil society network could be one of the reasons for the failures of these programs to make major changes in the livelihood of the targeted beneficiaries. Budget allocation does not ensure that services, as intended would be delivered to the targeted persons at the grass root level. Due to various socio political reasons, leakages have taken place.

Decentralized model is best for democracy but to ensure that it functions properly, the stakeholders should play an active role. Corrupt politicians and civil servants taking advantage of people's inaction have hijacked the panchayat system.

The public sector banks in recent years have reduced their loans to SMEs. This is not in line with the global trend. The PSU banks might have decided not to bear anymore subsidy burden in this competitive era. The shift in the government's policy towards market driven initiatives are clear. As per this model, the government will extend the infrastructural support and rest would be driven by market force. Micro credit mobilized at the local level through self-help groups (SHG) would play a more important role. The government has formed high-level committees to suggest appropriate policies on this. The signals are clear.