How the massive power outage played out on Twitter

New Delhi: As 19 states and 600 million people found themselves without power, Twitter was, for the second day in a row, rich with debate and discussion on the blackout.

Three major grids tripped today, most likely the result of states like Haryana, UP, Punjab and Rajasthan, drawing more than the share of electricity assigned to them.

Yesterday, the Northern supply grid had gone down, causing a giant power failure, the worst in 11 years.  

Industrialist Kiran Mazumdar Shaw tweeted on how the outage has shown the poor state of of public infrastructure in the country.

The Power failure in North India just shows how poor our public services are all because of sub-optimal investment in upgradation n training

-- Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (@kiranshaw) July 31, 2012

The capital's lifeline, the Delhi metro, was out of commission for more than an hour.

Powergrid collapses again. Metro/ traffic all effected. Yesterday the trouble seemed temp.. Guess the troubleshoot was temp. #electricity

-- Sumeet Chaudhri (@djsumitchaudhri) July 31, 2012

A twitter account for The Prime Minister's Office did not make any comment on the crisis, leading author Chetan Bhagat to ask why.

600mn indians affected by power grid failure. Any word from the PM? Anything?

-- Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) July 31, 2012

The inability of India to keep up with the energy demands of a massive population and industry has been highlighted in international media and with tweets like these:

At this rate, the next election can be fought between Indian against Corruption and India against Electricity

-- Ashok Malik (@MalikAshok) July 31, 2012

Every single government in India has missed the annual electricity production increase target since 1951. Every government, every year!!

-- Kiran Kumar S (@KiranKS) July 31, 2012

And  then there were those who pointed out that the country's abysmal infrastructure is keeping India from taking its shot at super-power status.

the awkward moment when you have internet access and no electricity at home. can't decide if it's a 1st world or a 3rd world country.

-- Frootifer Vajpayee (@Oinkoo) July 31, 2012