The government of India brought light into more than 15,000 villages in 2017. Still, around 2,217 villages are yet to see the lights turn on in their homes, and the central government plans to electrify those remaining villages by May 2018.

There were 18,452 un-electrified villages in the country as of April 1, 2015. Out of these, 15,183 villages had been electrified as of November 30, 2017.

According to the latest government report, the state with the greatest number of unelectrified villages is Arunachal Pradesh where over a thousand villages remain in the dark.

Keeping rural electrification as one of its priorities, the government has approved projects worth ₹425.65 billion (~$6.65 billion) under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) program.

In March, Mercom reported that a total of 12,364 villages had been electrified under the DDUGJY program as of February 28, 2017. A total of 6,088 were still in need of electrification at the time.

In the last eight months, 2,519 unelectrified villages have received power. The government has embarked upon a massive rural-electrification program this year under its Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA scheme) which aims to achieve universal household electrification across the country by March 2019.

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