After PM’s appeal, power ministry asks PSUs to promote work from home, cut foreign travel

New Delhi: The Union power ministry has advised public sector units (PSUs) under its administrative control to promote work from home and reduce employees’ foreign travel after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent appeal for rationalised use of energy amid the West Asia crisis.

The PSUs under the power ministry are NTPC, Power Grid Corp of India Ltd, Power Finance Corp, REC Ltd.

In an advisory, the ministry asked these companies to evaluate the possibility of some of their employees working from home one day a week. It also suggested that if feasible, up to 20% of staff may be permitted to work from home any day of the week.

Along these lines, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), an agency under the power ministry, is undertaking a pilot initiative to encourage and reward employees of the ministry and its central PSUs to use public transport and vehicles prudently.

The power ministry wrote in a post on X on Thursday that the programme, ‘RAHI: Action for High Efficiency Initiative’, encourages officials and personnel across the ministry of power, central PSUs, and related organisations to promote energy-efficient practices and behavioral changes. It added that employees who choose to participate will be able register all their vehicles (official or personal) on a portal, still in development, that will track the monthly use of their vehicles. Those who manage to reduce their usage will win a small reward, it said in another post.

The development comes after prime minister Narendra Modi made an appeal on 10 May, urging the public to exercise restraint, conserve resources, revive work-from-home culture, and postpone unnecessary foreign travel to save foreign exchange. He reiterated the appeal on 11 May as India continues to grapple with the economic fallout of the West Asia conflict and rising global fuel prices.

India imports about 90% of its oil. In FY26, the country’s oil import bill was more than $123 billion.

Delhi govt gets in on the act

Meanwhile, the Delhi government announced a slew of measures on Thursday, including two days of work from home for government employees, use of metro trains on Mondays by ministers and officers, and a voluntary ‘no-vehicle day’ every week.

Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta also announced that all official foreign trips by ministers had been suspended for a year, and no major government events would be held for the next three months. She also said fuel quotas for Delhi government officers had been reduced by 20%.