India power outage

Two massive power outages in India affected more people than any blackout in history: more than 600 million. On July 31 the country’s northern electricity grid failed for several hours, and when it crashed again on Aug. 2, it took down the western and eastern grids as well.

Trains and metros were stopped and traffic lights failed. ATMs stopped working and many stores closed, but airports, hospitals and many businesses switched to generators. Power was restored in late evening.

With high demand during the monsoon season, causes of the failure may have included widespread theft of electricity plus unauthorized draws on the grid by various states.