The Impetus for Hydropower Development in India New Initiatives T THE CURRENT POWER DEMAND IN INDIA IS being driven by three key factors: the government's resolve to provide a 24/7 power supply to all (the Power for All Program), increasing urbanization, and the rapid growth of the manufacturing sector (the Make in India initiative). The government of India has set a renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022 to meet this power demand. Since most renewable energy plants use intermittent sources (solar and wind), the reliability and stability of the grid must be ensured through peaking support and ancillary services. This is where hydropower provides an important role. By Satish Kumar Sharma and Vinod Batta Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2020.3000687 Date of current version: 19 July 2020 18 ieee power & energy magazine 1540-7977/20©2020IEEE september/october 2020