In its bid to gain Asian hegemony, China views India as a major obstacle. Chinese hackers, officials suggested, had trained their sights on bringing down Mumbai’s electric grid-and they had succeeded. They did not name a particular culprit, but the implication was clear. Indian officials revealed in March that they might have found the cause of the power cut: a foreign cyberattack that targeted the servers of state power companies. The disruption left authorities in the western state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, searching for answers.
Major outages are not altogether uncommon in India, but Mumbai had prided itself on its recent record of reliable electricity for its residents.
Mumbai faced its worst power cut in decades, with businesses crippled, the stock market shut down, thousands of commuters stranded, and hospitals scrambling to ensure backup supply for their COVID-19 patients. On October 12, 2020, the electricity went out in India’s biggest city.
