This programme promises energy efficiency through agriculture demand side management by reduction in overall power consumption, improving efficiencies of ground water extraction, reducing subsidy burden on state utilities and also investment in power plants through avoided capacity. Over 70 per cent of the rural households depend on agriculture. Agriculture is an important sector of Indian economy as it contributes about 17% to the total GDP and provides employment to over 60% of the population. As per the available data, more than 2.1 crore pump sets are installed in agriculture sector, majority of the pump sets are inefficient. Statistics shows that 2.5 to 5 lakh new pump set connections added every year to the sector. The average capacity of agricultural pumps in India is around 5 HP with efficiency levels hovering around 25-30%.