NEW DELHI (MCT) — On one level, the power outage that stalled trains, snarled traffic and left hospitals scrambling across much of India was an example of business as usual — except, of course, that this time it covered an area including nearly 10 percent of the world’s population.

But taken another way, Tuesday’s massive blackout, the second in two days, underscored the yawning gap between India’s superpower dreams and a sweltering, gritty reality. Problems with an aging electrical grid, pricing system and inefficient mining practices combined to darken a stretch of northern and eastern India that is home to 600 million people, in the process illustrating deep structural problems.