The ability of India to transform into a developed, future-proof country by 2047 does not solely depend on the rate of its economic development but above all the standard of her public institutions. The greatest of these schools is that of the state-owned electricity utilities who succeeded to the legacy of the vertically integrated State Electricity Boards. Combining institutional-economic, historical, and political-science interpretations, this cross-disciplinary chapter explores governance reform in the Indian power sector both as exemplar of the broader project of nation-building envisioned in Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, and the interrelated commitments to innovation, skill development, environmental sustainability, and human values. Following the history of the sector through regulatory frameworks in the colonial period to the unbundling and corporatisation required by the Electricity Act, 2003, to national politics of tariff politics and electoral politics as well as partialages between owner-government and regulator, the chapter relies on New Public Management, principal-agency theory, post-NPM institutional political economy, and the political economy of Indian federalism to conclude that financial and technical turnaround has been chronically throttled not by the lack of policy instruments, but by the absence of internal accountability, electorality-driven tariff politics, and incomplete separation between owner-government and regulator. The chapter, based on the hill state of Himachal Pradesh as a case study of the federal experience, demonstrates how a combination of terrain-specific cost structure, thin consumer base, and revenue reimbursement due to hydropower can conceal, as opposed to solve, underlying governance vulnerabilities, and thus institutional reform, not capital infusion, becomes the constraining element of equitable and affordable energy transition. The chapter suggests a governance-first reform agenda, professionalised boards, ring-fenced regulatory autonomy, structured capacity-building, and transparency mechanisms, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 16, as the interconnected institutional infrastructure through which innovation, skills, and sustainability commitments can be reliably fulfilled at the state level.