Most of the supply utilities are govt. owned. There are a few private utilities in some cities - Tata and Reliance Power are the biggest. A lot of power generation is private though.
There are 5 main grids in India - North, East, North-East, South, West. The North grid gave way yesterday and was restored. It failed again today, but this time dragged East and North-East too. The failure is attributed to a single state (Uttar Pradesh/UP) drawing more than its share of power. Its the state with the most population and highest fertility rate. Also the most backward.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...wer-failure-in-india/articleshow/15291201.cms
All the power generation units supplying to the failed grids have been shutdown. Restarting them and getting the grid back up is going to take a day.
The South grid is not connected to the rest and hence remained clean. There are frequent but planned power cuts to balance production-demand, but no failures.