Saubhagya Scheme

The Saubhagya Scheme, formally the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana, was launched by the Indian government in 2017 as a national initiative to achieve universal household electrification by providing free or low-cost electricity connections to remaining unconnected homes, with particular focus on poor rural and remote households. Building on earlier rural electrification programs that had extended power to villages but not always to every household within them, Saubhagya specifically targeted last-mile household connections, including through solar power packs for households in locations too remote for grid extension. The government declared the program's core target substantially achieved in March 2019, having connected more than 26 million households, though independent assessments raised questions about the reliability and consistency of supply to some newly connected homes.