India has blocked nearly half the country's provinces from accessing spot power exchanges after they failed to pay bills worth 51 billion rupees ($640 million), as it implements new rules aimed at forcing states to make timely payments.
India has refrained from condemning Russia, with which it has longstanding political and security ties, while calling for an end to violence in Ukraine
In April, India witnessed acute power shortage due to unavailability of coal supplies, with more than 100 million units (MU) of energy shortage on eight days over the course of the month.