Blackout hits more than 300 million in India_美文

Blackout hits more than 300 million in India

"First, no power since 2 in the morning, then no water to take a shower and now the metro is delayed by 13 minutes after being stuck in traffic for half an hour," said 32-year-old Keshav Shah, who works 30 km outside the capital.

"As if I wasn't dreading Monday enough, this had to happen."

The government's top economic planning adviser, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said the blackout may have been caused by a mix of coal shortages and other problems on the grid.

"I've no doubt that this is the area that we need to show improved performance in, and we also need to show a clear sense of what we are doing to prevent it," Ahluwalia told Reuters at his office, where power had been restored some hours earlier.

He said the grid was better networked now than five years ago and power sharing was more common.

But blackouts lasting up to eight hours a day are frequent in much of the country and have sparked angry protests on the industrial fringes of Delhi this summer, the hottest in years.

Questions:

1 How many people were left without power?

2 How many passengers were killed on the express train

3 India has had the slowest economic growth in how many years?

Answers

1. 300 million.

2. 32.

3. 9 years.

About the broadcaster:

Rosie Tuck is a copy editor at the China Daily website. She was born in New Zealand and graduated from Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Communications studies majoring in journalism and television. In New Zealand she was working as a junior reporter for the New Zealand state broadcaster TVNZ. She is in Beijing on an Asia New Zealand Foundation grant, working as a journalist in the English news department at the China Daily website.