CHENNAI: India's annual electricity use fell for the first time in at least 35 years during the fiscal year to end-March 2021, a Reuters analysis of government data showed, mainly due to intense lockdowns to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

India's power generation fell 0.2% during the year 2020/21 compared with the previous year, the data showed, mainly due to the imposition of lockdowns that resulted in a decline in electricity production for six straight months ending in August.

Demand for electricity has picked up since, however, and generation grew 23.3% in March from a year earlier, the seventh consecutive monthly increase and the fastest since March 2010.