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Grid Failures Leave More Than 600 Million Without Power In India

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Indian stranded passengers wait for the train services to resume following a power outage at Sealdah station in Kolkata, India, Tuesday. (AP)
Indian stranded passengers wait for the train services to resume following a power outage at Sealdah station in Kolkata, India, Tuesday. (AP)

Over half of India was left without power this morning when three of the country's electrical grids failed. This comes after a blackout yesterday which left over 300 million Indians without power. These are now the biggest power grid failures in world history, and together they caused massive traffic jams, stalled hundreds of trains, trapped miners, and stopped crematoriums.

While the government response has been rapid, analysts say the outages show a lack of investment in basic infrastructure. Ironically, even as hundreds of millions wait for power to be restored, 400 million Indians have no access to electricity.

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This segment aired on July 31, 2012.

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