Massive India Blackouts Lead to … Government Official's Promotion

Newspaper editorials rip the decision.

The Indian minister who presided over the world's two biggest blackouts this week has been promoted to Home Minister, even as 680 million people across 22 states struggle without power.

Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde described Monday's massive power cuts as the "rarest of the rare". But people across the country were again forced to make do without power in stiflingly humid monsoonal conditions on Tuesday and early yesterday after large sections of the national grid failed for the second time in 48 hours.