India's blackout is a wakeup call in US too

Persis Khambatta, an expert at the Centre For Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank, considers the failure of supply and distribution of power to keep up with India's rapid economic growth as perhaps the most important reason for the power failure.

"Some analysts see these outages as a sign of a much larger issue - that India does not have the capacity to keep up with its growth-and this is a source of concern as India's appeal as an investment destination has recently taken a hit," wrote the fellow with the Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies.

"...without addressing deep-rooted political problems, ranging from land acquisition to unaffordable state subsidies, it will be difficult to effectively address India's current power and infrastructure insufficiencies."

However, Khambatta thinks that other infrastructure issues like railways, ports, and cold-chain technology pose more of an impediment to foreign investment.