ExpertDabbler

Is anyone using or manufacturing electric stoves in India? If yes, what’s your feedback?

I was a witness to the hardships faced by the public in getting a gas connection. My friend was made to run from pillar to post and in the end he spent about 6000 bucks for buying mixie, cooker and gas stove which he does not need, all because the gas agency insisted he buy all those if he wanted a gas connection.

Of course, this is more like a bribe, but our Indian Oil Corporation executives aka nation’s pride, in a master stroke of genius that only public sector folks can think of, have made it mandatory for one to hold a valid ration card to be eligible for gas connection.

My friend will be in Chennai this year, Bangalore the next, and his parents (permanent address) will be in Coimbatore, how is he supposed to hold a ration card wherever he goes?? It’s not half as easy as getting a credit card. Even if he had one, changing the address in the ration card is not exactly doable by clicking an ‘edit address’ hyperlink in a website, get the point? Those are lifetime projects.

The only other alternative is to get a gas connection from the private gas agencies. But many of them operate in such a small scale and do not get subsidy from the government and hence are prohibitively expensive.

Since all we can do is nominate our bureaucrats for nobel prize or whatever prize in public administration, I was wondering if anyone manufactures or uses an efficient, robust electric stove in India?? If we can have a microwave owen, an electric cooker and even energy guzzlers like air conditioners and electric water heaters, why not electric stoves?
Those who have or used this before, please let me know your feedback.

The potential advantages are too obvious to even list. So long as we have an electricity connection, we can have our idlis and dosais done fast. No more gas ’surrendering’ , ‘reconnecting’, death certificate, legal heir certificate fundas. No need for ‘gas booking’ 10 days in advance. No need for ‘asadu vazhunjufy’ your neighbor requesting him to get the gas cylinder when you and your spouse are gone for work. What’s more, spend a few thousand bucks on a UPS and hedge power cuts too. Last but not the least, we can put a full stop to ‘Cylinder vedithu ilam penn maranam’ sort of headlines in Dhina thandhi.

One condition though, we have to ensure such stoves are available even for those without valid ration cards.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 10:26 pm and is filed under Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.