Thank you very much Dr. Birol for those very-very kind words. Thank you professor Mark Allen Hughes for indulging, and I would say more than indulgence for tolerating the fact that I literally reached the Kleinman Center and had to come back without attending the programmes that you had organized through the day that day.

And I am grateful to you, to Miss Lincey, Molly, to Corry, to Bill, the entire team and to you Ma’am for really encouraging the efforts that India has done in the sphere of energy policy by flying down to India and continuing with the celebrations of the Carnot Prize. Thank you very much for bestowing this honour on me. I am really-really grateful to Kleinman Center and grateful to you, Dr. Birol for nominating me and I am extremely grateful to all of you, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, who have joined us on this occasion today.

If one was to look at the history behind the story of electricity, of power, energy access, the fight against climate change, energy efficiency, I would say it has been inspired by the foresight of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. Mahatma Gandhi had visualised that India lives in its villages and unless we take development, unless we take the fruits of development to those villages, we can never truly have a happy nation, have a nation of progress. And Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has consistently over the last five years encouraged all his colleagues to focus on the last man at the bottom of the pyramid, when it came to conducting the affairs of our Ministries and affairs of the government.

And I think it is his visionary leadership and the effort of the so many of my colleagues who are in this room today, secretaries who have been with me in this journey over the last four years, particularly, in the energy space, secretaries who have worked for renewable energy, to promote renewable energy, officials from different Ministries whether it is Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy, Environment, I dare say Finance also, you cannot do any of these things without finance, and the millions of people engaged in the power sector across the country, engaged in the mining sector across the country, the youth of India who recognise the value of clean energy, but for this collective efforts all of my team and the leadership that Prime Minister Modi gave, I suspect this would not have been possible.

And I truly dedicate this award to all of you in this journey, which has taken us from an energy shortage to a power surplus country, this journey where we have led the world in its effort to introduce energy efficiency, particularly through the LED programme, in this journey to provide energy access to every single household in this country in a short span of time, in this journey to keep energy costs affordable for the poor of India, for the middle classes, in this journey to see that India provides leadership to the world’s efforts to tackle the menace of carbon, the fight against emissions, the huge contribution that India is doing in the sphere of climate change is truly testament to the faith that our people have in the environment, the faith that is a part of our tradition, a part of our heritage, a part of our culture which tells us that every element of nature has a role to play and we have to respect every element of nature.

I would like to thank the Kleinman Center for recognising this work because I think this recognition will only encourage more of our colleagues, more of our team and will certainly give the people of India confidence that we are on the right path, the path of climate justice. Because truly, one cannot have a nation where we still had probably at one point of time, barely five years ago, more than 250 million citizens of India without access to energy. We cannot have villages, seven decades after independence, deprived of a basic amenity like power. We cannot have children not connected to the rest of the world for lack of energy access.

And I think this journey of the last four or five years, particularly the fact that very early on in this journey I learned a lot of lessons. I do not know whether it was Sunil from Financial Express or somebody had carried a headline on me just after I had become the Power Minister, probably third or fourth day after I became a Power Minister, and there was a huge thunderstorm in Delhi, which some of you may recall, 29th or 30th of May 2014, and most of the national capital was without power.

I remember the headline read “Baptism by outage,” and that was the story of power in the country. I suspect many of the distinguished friends who have joined us today will recall that none of our homes would have been complete without either a generating set, electricity genset, inverters for our computers or some sort of energy back-up. And the nation has progressed from that period of energy shortages to a period where we are grappling with surplus power and we have a power secretary Mr. Bhalla sitting here, who is most concerned how can we sell more power. And in some sense sometimes I reflect on that journey and I wonder whether I have myself to blame for this problem, because but for the energy efficiency programme which we rolled out in such a big way, possibly another 20-30 of his power plants would have been running very well now, but at what cost to the nation, at what cost to the people of India.

And I dare say the LED programme, and thank you very much Dr. Birol for espousing this cause across the world. I have had an occasion where Power Ministers of different countries, particularly in Europe, have thanked Prime Minister Modi in our bilateral meetings for making LED affordable across the world. And I think the huge scale up of LED bulbs in the country, of street lights across the country helped bring down the prices by nearly 87% in India, and that made this programme probably one of the most economically viable projects that I have ever seen or heard about in my own three decades of business experience.

I was mentioning in an earlier programme this morning, the entire spend of the people of India to buy these LED bulbs and changeover would probably be in the region  of about 2 billion dollars, at best. I suspect it should be much lower. But that 2 billion dollars is saving the consumers and all of you, ladies and gentlemen, at least 7 billion dollars annually in electricity bills. I would not even get into the lumination being much more, into the life of the LED bulb being much longer and all of those other benefits, but a small thing like an LED bulb can transform the energy security and the energy scenario of a country was for me also quite a learning experience.

I recall that day on 5th of January 2015 when Prime Minister Modi launched this programme by changing the bulb himself in the Prime Minister’s office in South Block, and frankly, all of us were full of disbelief. The bulbs those days were costing us almost five, six hundred rupees in the market place. We set out on a mission to make available 770 million LED bulbs in a span of 5 years that was our original target. It was a daunting task and I remember if I may take a small story just to share where the inflexion point of this programme came in.

I had actually gone to make the honourable Prime Minister the report about the coal auctions. We were having auction of coal mines, which this government had perforce had to do in a very short span of time after a huge corruption scandal had resulted in almost 204 coal mines being cancelled and the honourable Supreme Court giving us very little time, barely 6 months to create a new law, a new framework, establish rules of an auction and, actually auction the operating mines within 6 months.

I would say it had never happened before but we did manage to achieve that target. Within 6 months we were able to auction all the mines in the country, which were operating at that point of time. So I had just gone to discuss with the honourable Prime Minister the progress of the auction, and I shared with him that this is my timetable going forward, and broadly I said in 90 days I should be able to auction these mines. He casually asked me why should it take you 90 days.

I gave him a big spin about the levels of control and integrity and the process and the fine tuning of the process and absolute transparency. In fact, I even ventured to suggest to him, Sir even if you want me to help somebody I will not be able to help. And after we had finished the review of the coal mine auction, just as I was about to leave his home, early morning, he says how many bulbs have you sold so far? I don’t know. I thought selling LED bulbs was not the Power Minister’s prime responsibility in any case. I said, ‘I will check up and get back to you.’ He said ‘sit down’.

I thought I was the management student, 30 years in industry, I knew all the good principles of running corporations. He said, ‘Piyush, programmes like these do not achieve success unless you monitor it regularly, and only when you monitor it you will be able to hold people accountable.’ And I remember coming back to office that day, some of my colleagues of that time are in this room. We prepared a mobile app in 7 days. Through that mobile app we had the entire LED programme available to the people of India on their mobiles. Every aspect of that project, of that programme is on that mobile.

Over a period it, of course, was refined several times to the extent that right now, if somebody was to open that app, the Ujala app, will be able to find out in every district of the country, how many LED bulbs have been sold until one minute ago. This, of course, relates to the government company which had promoted this EESL and I do not if Saurabh has come here today. There, we have the managing director of EESL Saurabh, the prime mover of this very successful programme.

You can go into that district and find our every location where these bulbs will be available, and should you want to go and actually buy the bulb, it connects you to the google map and from wherever you are it will show you the way to get to that outlet where the LED bulb would be available. And I think this kind of monitoring, not even on daily basis or weekly basis, but on a minute by minute basis, is the kind of work that Prime Minister Modi has demonstrated over the last five years. Focussed attention, focus on targets, focus on achievement, focus on timelines, focus on outcomes, focus on integrity that has helped us make sure that every citizen in this country today has affordable energy access.

And just like my late father had to study under streetlights to do his engineering, I believe no other child in this country should ever have to go through that ignominy. In fact, if I may share a tryst with Wharton that I have had. I was very worried the whole day today about what could go wrong possibly. Way back in 1989, that is exactly 30 years ago, Professor Harbir Singh at Wharton and I had a conversation on the phone and then he admitted to the Phd programme in strategy at the Wharton Business School. I went through some business problems in my factory, could not go that year, took a gap year and then one thing led to another. I never landed up studying at Wharton.

The story of Dussehra, the day we celebrate a very important Indian festival is when you decided that you will award me the Carnot prize and when I reached there and the unfortunate tragedy back home made me rush back and I could not accept the award. When my office said Dr. Birol has suggested that when he is here in India, we should do the formal award function, I was extremely concerned. I do not know how many of you have seen that movie, ‘Hum Tum.’ It is a Bollywood film in which every time the hero and heroine get together some calamity has to happen. This day will pass well. So will tomorrow and day after tomorrow.

The India today is moving into the new age where we will now provide leadership on the energy sphere in different ways and my own Ministry of Railways we have embarked on the world’s most ambitious railway electrification programme, where over the next 4 or 5 years the entire Indian Railways will be 100% running on electric types. The only other comparable railway which is probably much-much smaller, it would be may be one-fifth or one-sixth the size of the Indian Railways is the Swiss railway which is electrified. No other large railway, in fact, I am given to understand the American railway system has barely 2% electrification.

But Prime Minister Modi directed me long back, and I think again some of my officers were in the room when the call came, I was Power Minister at that time, I wasn’t even handling railways and I got a call some time in 2015 or so, when he conceptualised that we must convert all railway lines, all railway track to electric traction. Since then this government has made rapid strides. I think 5 years ago the railways used to electrify about 600 odd kilometres every year. The last year we did 4000-plus kilometres. This year we should do about 6000 and many of us in Delhi are concerned about pollution, you would be amazed that 60% of the trains that come into Delhi perforce have to come in on diesel, because somewhere along the route the electrification was not done.

That was the kind of planning that we have seen over so many years. The first thing we did was to fix the roots which were partially electrified. For the life of me I cannot understand why anybody would have as was done in the past electrified portions of the road. It just beats me. I cannot figure it out till now. Similarly, a simple thing like the changeover to LED was never thought of government institutions. I think the railways managed to convert the entire rail network in probably less than one year.

We have now conceptualised to support the green energy programme, how the railways can set up solar installations in the large tracts of land that we have across the country, which will help generate electricity at affordable prices for the railways, and further bring down the carbon emissions. And I am sharing all this only to show the holistic manner in which India is contributing to the global effort to fight against climate change, to ensure a better future for the children of India, for the youth of India, for the generations ahead of us and in the true spirit of inter-generational equity, I think it is incumbent on all of us in this generation to make sure that we leave behind a better world to live in. We leave behind us a world where we don’t have to grapple with the kind of problems that our children today, particularly, in the villages have to face and basic amenities are taken care of. And that has been, I think the effort of this government, all of my colleagues here, my ministerial colleagues, Prime Minister Modi working as one organic entity, as one team to empower the people of India and as we had targeted in the first year when I was Power Minister towards the common goal ‘from darkness lead us to light’.

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. Big thank you to you Dr. Birol for coming all the way. A big thank you to you, Mark and your colleagues. A big thank you to all my colleagues who have worked with me in this journey over the years and thank you very much to all my friends, well-wishers for making it possible  to be with me today. Thank you very much.

Thank you Mark. Thank you for those very generous words. You are right. I never thought of the number of rooms where I had the opportunity over the last five years to interact with world leaders. I mean, you mentioned it I am remembering the day we were with President Obama in Paris, probably, one of the days where I recognised the importance that India has in the world order, if we have to make climate justice happen and if we have to make the climate successful. Sushilji was part of that negotiating team, led that team, in fact.

I think the biggest characteristic, if I may suggest, is trust. Unless you trust yourself and the people with whom you are engaged, you will never be able to achieve success. And it is only trustworthy people who ever make it to those rooms, people whom, for instance, in this case, a 125 crore Indians trusting Prime Minister Modi and he trusting Mr Prakash Javadekar and I, two colleagues who were with him there, to be a part of the team along with our senior bureaucracy. The trust that the people had in us and our confidence to ensure that that trust is not ever betrayed.

Of course, in any such room, I would think two other things are extremely important – passion and compassion. Unless you are passionate about what you are doing, success will never be yours. And unless you do your work with compassion and that compassion could be for your country, for your people, and it certainly should be for all of us. But I think that compassion should also be for the world community at large. That compassion should also be for future generations. That compassion should also reflect in every sphere of decision that you take, because end of the day, I think that is the very purpose of being.

So, trust, passion and compassion I would think really would be the three characteristics that a leader has to demonstrate to be a part of that room.

Mark, I would like to more inward looking. Dr Birol has to look after the world’s problems, I have to look after my country’s problems first. If at all I am concerned, and which is an agenda of all of us in government, we are really-really concerned that we are still a highly import-dependent economy, both on the petroleum products, natural gas, crude oil and coal also in a big way. So to that extent, in fact, even the electrification of railways, the big thrust to renewables, solar, all of them also are linked to India’s energy security. The fluctuations of international prices, the vagaries of companies and countries around the world choosing to – I don’t know whether I can use the word ‘manipulate the market’ – but at least certainly leave a lot of uncertainty.

And I think that is one of the targets that all of us in government and the people of India are looking up to is can we rid ourselves of this import dependency and become completely energy secure. And ensure that we don’t drain our resources in import of energy products. That alone can transform India into completely another orbit of development, another orbit of progress for the people of India. And that would probably be that final redemption, final goal which would satisfy I think Prime Minister Modi to really feel that yes, this is a job well done or for which he could tell any of his Ministers that okay, you are now being successful.

So, that is one thing which is very clearly an aspirational target for all of us and it will keep me up for few more years. But I am confident that given the big thrust we are doing on certain programmes, not only the renewable energy or the energy efficiency programme, also some transformations on the automobile front, where we hope to lead the world in another sphere of, or to bring down consumption of petroleum products. And several ways where we believe we can actually become a self-sufficient economy.

But what wakes me up in the morning is the enthusiasm of the teeming millions of youth of our country, a very-very excitable young population – more than 60-65% of India is in that age group which is yearning for more, which has that expectation which drives youth, which is aspiring for a quality of life which India never dreamt of in the past, which has big dreams, big hopes, big aims. It’s that youth that drives all of us in our work. It’s that youth, the new startups, the unicorns that are coming up by the day, by the week; inventions, innovations, new ideas that puts pressure on us that really gives us that encouragement to do more. And to my mind, it’s the youth of India who are going to really define India’s future and the work that all of us are doing.

Ends.

 

Shri Manoj Sinhaji; the most venerable Padma Vibhushan Shri Satish Gujralji and Shrimati Gujralji; Satishji, we are honoured not only by your presence but we are honoured that you have given a big boost to this effort to promote rural banking, to promote banking at the doorstep of every Indian in the country. Thank you very much for designing this stamp. And it’s gorgeous. It’s really beautiful. I was looking at it and I think it’s one of the finest stamps that I have ever seen in my life. It’s truly beautiful. Thank you Satishji.

Shri Nanda, Shri Suresh Sethi, Ms Mira Handa, Mr AP Singh; all the distinguished colleagues working in the India Post Payments Bank, the post department, officers, all the employees, today’s award winners, ladies and gentlemen.

An award ceremony is always very exciting, full of enthusiasm, full of joy, but when it’s coupled with awards for exemplary performance in such a short period of time, I think it’s a matter of double celebration. I have in my professional career had a lot of occasion to see the banking system in India grow, but I have yet to see a comparable occasion where a new bank has had such a vast impact in such a short period of time, reaching the nook and corner of the country.

Truly, a scale-up that has rarely been seen, probably anywhere in the world. A 126,000 access points ready up and about, I am told the figure is going to significantly increase in the next week or two, reflecting the vision of this leadership, reflecting Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to make growth and financial inclusion a reality, not only for those who have boarded the train – if I may use an analogy from a ministry that both of us share – but actually take banking to a 125 crore Indians all over India.

And I do not imagine there could have been a better method other than, as Suresh has said, ‘डाकिया बैंक लाया.’ आप लोगों को याद होगा, राजेश खन्ना की पिक्चर थी शायद? मुझे लगता है 50 साल हो गए होंगे उस पिक्चर को भी शायद अभी, 40 साल हुए हैं। और हममें से इस रूम में कोई भी ऐसा व्यक्ति शायद ही होगा जिसने कभी न कभी गुनगुनाया नहीं होगा ‘डाकिया डाक लाया।’

और वास्तव में आपने मनोज जी आपके कुशल नेतृत्व से प्रधानमंत्री जी की सोच को कार्यान्वित किया, हमारे डाकिया भाइयों बहनों को, सभी ग्रामीण डाक सेवकों को इज़्ज़त दी और एक प्रकार से मोबाइल की जो तेज़ गति से बढ़ती हुई विस्तार थी जिसका भी नेतृत्व आप ही कर रहे हैं, उसके रहते हुए पोस्टल सिस्टम रिडंडंट न हो जाये, पोस्टल सिस्टम का वर्चस्व न खत्म हो जाये उसको सुनिश्चित करते हुए यह पूरा जो प्रयोग रहा है इंडियन पोस्ट पेमेंट बैंक का मुझे पूरा विश्वास है यह अपने आपमें इतिहास रचेगा और देश के हर नागरिक को, खासतौर पर हमारे गांव में रहने वाले भाई बहनों को जो अधिकार है बैंकिंग सुविधाओं का, जो उनकी ज़रूरत है अर्थव्यवस्था के साथ जुड़े, भारत के विकास के साथ जुड़ने की उसको पूरा करने में एक बहुत अहम भूमिका यह बैंक निभाएगा।

आज के सभी विजेताओं को तो मैं तहे दिल से बहुत-बहुत बधाई देता ही हूँ लेकिन सभी तीन लाख जो इस प्रयोग के साथ जुड़े हैं चाहे पोस्टमैन हों, चाहे ग्रामीण डाक सेवक हों आप सभी को मेरी शुभकामनाएं देता हूँ कि आप इस काम को पूरी ईमानदारी से, पूरी लगन के साथ नीचे तक पहुंचाएंगे जिससे फिर एक बार जो आखिरी अवॉर्डी थे मुझे लगता है मुझे तो सबसे बड़ा आनंद आया उनको मिलकर जो यूनिफॉर्म में थे। मुझे तो वास्तव में बहुत ही आनंद आया उनको देखकर कि उन्होंने अपनी वर्दी का भी सम्मान किया और आज के इस कार्यक्रम में वर्दी में आये।

यह गाँधी जी की कल्पना थी कि एक गरीब से गरीब व्यक्ति को आर्थिक व्यवस्था के साथ जोड़ा जाये, जो कमज़ोर वर्ग है उसको आर्थिक व्यवस्था के साथ जोड़ा जाये। और मनोज जी के, मेरे, हम सबके जो प्रणेता हैं – the ideologue who gave the Bharatiya Janata Party its vision, its very purpose of being – Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, had very rightly espoused his vision for India when he said that the right of the nation’s wealth, the nation’s natural resources is for the poorest of the poor, the last man at the bottom of the pyramid first.

And I think truly, with this initiative, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Minister Shri Manoj Sinhaji, and the entire postal team is living up to that vision, is living up to that expectation. And I have no doubt that this big roll-out and this rapid roll-out will certainly make banking transactions for the poor, for the people in rural India much more simple, much more affordable, real time and provide a huge service, a huge benefit that they can also enjoy the fruits of development much faster, they can get their benefits seamlessly, directly into their account, they can ensure that they use their savings more efficiently, more effectively.

And this combination of the postal department banking services and development of the nation will work in tandem to truly make growth inclusive and take growth and the benefits of growth to every single citizen of this country.

The statistics that were told were truly impressive, the way we have seen the enthusiasm in the department to make this programme a success. In fact, we have moved now to mere slogans to actual action on the ground, and we saw that action right now while the awards were being given. I think our Minister Shri Manoj Sinhaji was reflecting true leadership where with every individual who came he was not only encouraging them, but also enquiring of some target, enquiring of some work that was probably last given to them. And it reflects what a responsible leadership can do and how a responsible leadership closely monitors every programme to make it a great success.

Truly, this kind of massive work could not have been achieved, but for very-very active engagement of the Minister, of all the senior officials of the department, all the supervisory people working at different levels, and certainly would have been impossible to achieve, but for the hard work, but for the commitment, but for the passion that we can see in our postmen, in the Dak Sevaks. My compliments to all of you in this room, my compliments to all the 300,000 people associated with this programme.

And I am sure that given the large scale-up in its very first year, we will see the economic transformation of rural India actually reaching the benefits to the poorest of the poor, to the last man in every village, howsoever remote it may be, in a fashion that is seamless and truly reflective of the new India that each and every one of us is working towards.

The simple and smart methodology that Mr Sethi just explained of providing delivery of services to various customers, the way they have been able to use databases such as IndiaStack, the way UPI is being modified to be accessible for all the people without any need of smartphone, without remembering the account number, will truly revolutionize banking in my humble opinion.

This kind of smart banking, this kind of easy banking is something that India is probably leading the world in. I suspect no other part of the world has focused much on providing this kind of easy and simple banking. And in a way, this bank will also help us enhance customer literacy about finance and the financial world.

I am sure our postman and all the people associated with this bank will also become gradually advisors to help people in the remote areas of the country enjoy the benefits, enjoy the fruits of development. Because, very often, we find that very good policies and programmes remain unaccomplished because they don’t reach the last man at the bottom. And I think the beneficiaries of all these schemes will also benefit with the connect, the human connect that we have seen the postman has, particularly, in rural India.

And I am sure leveraging on this connect between the postman and the customer, and this connect is very often of generations, very often this connect continues for decades. And if one was to actually reflect on the true defining and most easily recognizable government bodies which every citizen of this country immediately relates to, and fortunately, for all of us, both of them are under the able leadership of Manoj Sinhaji. It’s the postman and the railway station. These are two things that everybody in the country can connect with.

I would suspect if each one of us was to reflect into our own family history, you would find that sometime back in your family history somebody boarded a train which has brought you here in this room today. It is that train journey, maybe in your generation, maybe the earlier generation, maybe two generations back, but it would have been that one defining train journey which changed the course of your life.

I have no doubt in my life that each one of us in this room have some day or the other received a good news from the postman, something that gave you that feeling of happiness, the feeling of joy. And today, I can say with authority that given the transformational changes, both in the postal department and in the railway department, that sense of joy that ‘wow’ feeling will once again come into the lives of the poor of India, once again come into the lives of the citizens of India, particularly in rural areas.

And the India Post Payments Bank will play a very-very important role in this transformation of India that all of us are collectively working for. My best wishes to all of you.

Thank you.

 

… for his leadership of the energy industry, of the energy policy framework being developed across borders, and somebody who is very passionate about his job. Dr Vinod, thank you very much for giving India this opportunity to launch this very important report on the future of rail. And I do hope we can continue to work together in many-many years in the future.
Mr Vinod Kumar Yadav, Chairman Railway Board; Mr Loubinoux, the Director General of the International Union of Railways; Dr Timur Gul, who just made this presentation about the summary of outcomes of this report that we have launched today; my good friend Bruce, Bruce Murphy and I have worked for almost five years now. He is as difficult as one can get, but as loving as one can desire.
But I am happy to recognize the presence of professors and his colleagues who have come down from the …. centre and I am really grateful for their effort despite my own failure to be able to accept the award when I reached literally the doorstep of the ….. Centre, but for very tragic reasons could not accept that award that day, but thank you very much professor. I am very grateful to you.
Members of the Railway Board, secretary Razdan, Dr Ajay Mathur, Mr Berhad Sarotra; other colleagues from the railways, from other areas of the energy space, friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen.
At the outset, I am very sorry I was a little late coming in, but right now I am completely not sure what I am supposed to do for the next 10 minutes or 15 minutes. The time and moment is changing every few minutes and I am in the midst of a very important assignment I am temporarily holding. So my sincerest apologies for not being able to make it. In time, I was doing a little bit of writing work and after a long time at that, because over the years you tend to lose your writing skills, you are more comfortable dictating. Particularly, in India we are so used to dictating our messages, our speeches, our comments, and this is one time that I cannot enjoy the benefit of that staff support. But thank you for your indulgence.
Today incidentally is also the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. Railways has played a very important role in the life of Mahatma. In fact, in his journey from Mohan to Mahatma – his name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi – his journey from Mohan to Mahatma was captured in a tableau on the 26th January, when we celebrated the Republic Day. Because it was his experience on that rail compartment in South Africa that truly defined his life as we saw it evolve over the years.
That incident of being thrown off a train shaped not just his life, but India’s freedom struggle, possibly also the global philosophy of non-violence and truth. I pay my humble respects to Mahatma Gandhi. We are celebrating 150 years of Mahatma’s birth anniversary, and I believe his thoughts even today reverberate in the nation’s psyche. Each one of us is inspired by his solutions to the problems of humanity and if one was to look up his writings I think what he said 80 years/100 years ago is as relevant today as it was so many years ago.
In fact, its relevance has only grown over the years. His thoughts today are relevant for the entire world. If I may quote from one of his writings – ‘the day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.’ And I don’t think he meant ‘power’ in the context of energy, but truly, we have seen how all the nations of the world conspired to achieve a better world to progress towards a better world for our youth, for our future generations in 2015 in Paris when we all collectively agreed to tackle the menace of climate change through proactive measures, through significant advancements to bring down the levels of pollution, the high levels of carbon emissions and make the world a better place to live in.
Mahatma Gandhi spoke of this a hundred years ago. He recognized that a clean environment is necessary for a better quality of life. And I am delighted to share with all of you that this government led by Prime Minster Shri Narendra Modi is committed to ensuring a better future for the youth of India, a better future for every citizen of India and ensuring that climate change is an agenda of good governance, ensuring that we reduce our contribution to the messing up of the environment to the high levels of carbon emissions.
And we are all committed to ensure we are responsible global citizens. We are all committed to ensure climate justice, and we are all committed to being a part of this global effort to make a change across borders, across continents. India became a part of the International Energy Agency only in March 2017, and I must thanks to, thanks in great deal rather, in big measure, to the efforts and support that we received from Dr. Fatih Birol. He truly is somebody who is concerned about India, who cares for all Indians, and somebody I believe deserves an honorary citizenship of India, maybe.
Working together with IEA has been a very enriching experience. I believe the effort that has gone in into making this report on the future of rail, particularly, the opportunities it throws up for energy and the environment is phenomenal. I know that they have really engaged across the world with railways, with the energy experts, with policymakers and come out with a holistic document, recognizing certain realities, yet setting very ambitious goals for nations across the world.
Of course, there is a rising demand for better quality transport, safer transport, more comfortable transport, efficient, reliable, cheap transport. And I suspect no other form of travel can give that other than the railways. In fact, most of us in this room will recognize that today a Rs 5 coin can barely buy you anything, but it can buy you a train ride on the Indian railways. And that is why it truly is a railway which serves the poor of India, which serves the common man.
In fact, railway contribution to carbon emissions or to pollution is much less on a passenger-kilometre basis compared to the roads, for example. It’s also a far more safer way to travel. And, therefore, one can clearly see a very big future for railways, particularly, in a country like India which is emerging to become a global economy, which is emerging to lead global growth as was rightly pointed out.
And I have no doubt in my mind the huge thrust, the huge investment that the railways has received in the last five years which has helped us make it much safer, helped us expand the network, helped us complete several stalled projects to the last mile delivery, and introduce modern technologies in the Indian railways hitherto unheard of.
In fact, the Vande Bharat Express train – India’s first indigenously designed and developed semi high-speed train, is going to lead another wave of both manufacturing and change the way of train travel in India for our passengers, helping us not only contribute to better travel in India, but across the world. And I do believe that truly is a engineering marvel that our engineers of the Indian Railways have successfully implemented. Also, our successful effort to convert diesel engine locomotives to electric locomotives is truly, I would say, innovative, and will be a game changer in the way we evolve going forward. One of the detriments to our plans for 100% electrification of the Indian railways was what we would do with all these diesel engines, thousands of diesel engines around the country.
Having found a very low-cost solution to this problem, we believe our effort to do a 100% conversion of the entire Indian Railways to electric traction is going to be a reality now and over the next few years given the huge pace of expansion of electrification. Just to set a context Dr Birol, five years ago the Indian railways had done about 600 odd kilometres of electrification across the country. Last year, we did over 4000 kilometres and for the current year, we hope to go to 6000 kilometres, additional rail track which is electrified.
To my mind, this would probably be the world’s fastest roll-out of electrification of railways ever seen before. In some sense, similar to our roll-out of the LED bulbs, about which you have been so generous in your comments. I still remember, when I became Power Minister, my colleague and good friend, Dr Ajay Mathur, who was heading the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, coming up to me with a cabinet note on what we should do to encourage better utilization of power and electricity in the country.
If I remember correctly Ajay, it was August-September 2014, I mean I fear that I will be misunderstood, but there were so many things to catch up on and there were so many areas to focus on that frankly until the day he came in August or September, I did not even know that there is a Bureau of Energy Efficiency under me. That was the vast span of work that the Power Ministry was working on at that point of time. And we were in a hurry to take electricity to the poorest of the poor, in the remotest village in the country. And our focus was largely on how within a short span of time, we can ensure that every citizen of this country has a right and an ability to enjoy electricity in this country, which we have successfully done within a period of five years, something which the world never imagined is possible.
But when Ajay brought out the story of LED bulbs as a part of that Cabinet proposal, it had an element of LED bulbs. I share this because I am very passionate about that project, personally. We used to give a Rs 100 subsidy for every LED bulb that was sold in the country. We had a government company which was engaged in promoting LED bulbs, which used to buy about 600,000 bulbs – less than a million bulbs in a year. The then price was about Rs 310, which would translate to about $4.5 at that point of time, when you added taxes and the cost of distribution, interest, marketing. We were able to sell it for about $8-9-10, so the government had to give a subsidy of a dollar and a half so that there would be some traction, some people would probably buy LED bulbs.
I felt that we should move out of this subsidy model, because the subsidy was becoming a constraint to the rapid roll-out of this very important energy efficiency device. Because, after all, I would have had a limitation and I think I know that more now over the last five days than I ever knew it before in the amount that one could give as subsidies to promote LEDs. So, maybe at best, we could have taken 600,000 to a million, a five million or 10 million a year.
Collectively, the team decided that we will bring down the cost of LED bulbs to a double-digit number. We worked with the industry. We worked with the private sector. Nobody knew how it’s going to happen. It’s one of those I think comments I like to shoot off where I just said it has to be double digit. I remember somebody asking me in one of the meetings, what do you mean by double-digit? I said double-digit is double-digit, it has to be below Rs 99.
And I am happy to report to all of you that we were able to transform the LED programme from 600,000 or a million or two million bulbs being sold in a year, if we include the private sector also, to a programme where we have about a million bulbs sold every single day in this country. One million bulbs sold every day.
And I think it is this massive roll-out and the highest degree of transparency to make it a corruption-free programme that helped us to bring down the prices by as much as 87% for every bulb that we were selling. Not only that, we took up the task of encouraging Indian manufacture of these bulbs, providing jobs to millions of our people who are now engaged in the whole value chain from manufacturing, assembling, packing, distributing, marketing. And ladies and gentlemen, I think it has been the biggest payback that I have known of any programme where the nation collectively has invested probably less than two billion dollars in the entire roll-out of LED bulbs, but has saved nearly seven billion dollars worth of electricity every year at the cost of barely two billion dollars.
And I believe that truly is the leadership that Prime Minister Modi has given to India, the scale at which programmes have been rolled out, the commitment to achieve never-heard-before targets, the confidence of being able to do things and the integrity of purpose and honesty in implementation that has helped transform India from a spirit of helplessness to one where every citizen aspires for a better quality of life which he richly deserves.
I will be reading your report Dr Birol with great interest. We are looking at making India a leader in the manufacturing space and the railways is going to be an important element to all aspects of manufacturing. We are looking at making our farmer’s income double for which we will have to provide more and more facilities to transport the farm produce, again where the railways can play an important role. We are looking at newer technologies and innovation in India in which the railways will play a forward looking effort, forward looking role. And as the report suggests that we certainly have huge potential for better technologies, for more efficient, particularly, energy-efficient technologies.
The report has very rightly recognized India’s and Indian Railways’ efforts both in safety, in energy efficiency, in passenger comfort, but clearly my team led by My Yadav and the various other officials in this room and the nearly 1.3 million railwaymen across the nation will not rest until we have truly made Indian railways the best railway in the world.
Thank you very much.

आज यहाँ पर एनजीएमए में जो बहुत ही अच्छा काम हो रहा है उसको देखने आने वाला था तो मुझे लगा आप लोगों को भी बुलाकर एक और खुशखबरी आपके समक्ष भी रखने का मौका ले लूँ। वैसे आपने अंदर देखा लगभग 1900 अलग-अलग प्रकार के जो मोमेन्टोस या कभी न कभी कोई प्रकार की भेंट माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी को अलग-अलग कार्यक्रमों में दी जाती हैं वह सब यहाँ पर डिस्प्ले पर हैं। जब माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी गुजरात के मुख्यमंत्री थे उस दौरान भी जितने ऐसे मोमेंटो या किसी ने शॉल पहनाई, किसी ने जैकेट दिया, किसी ने हेडगियर दिया, किसी ने तलवार दी, कोई शील्ड दिया, यह सभी को माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी तोशाखाना में देते हैं और फिर समय-समय पर तोशाखाना से उसको जनता के समक्ष रखकर, जनता उसको ले सकती है। और जो भी राशि इसमें से मिलती है वह कुछ न कुछ अच्छे काम में लगे ऐसा माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी ने गुजरात के मुख्यमंत्री के दिनों से ही एक अच्छी प्रथा शुरू की थी। खासतौर पर हमारी बेटियों की पढ़ाई में गुजरात में जो पैसा आता था उसमें अधिकांश पैसा गरीब बेटियों की पढ़ाई में इस्तेमाल हुआ और ऐसे अन्य-अन्य अच्छे सामाजिक दृष्टि से कार्यक्रमों में यह पैसा जाता है।

इस बार की जो तोशाखाना में अभी तक जो-जो चीज़ें इकट्ठी हुई हैं इसमें भी जो पैसा राशि आएगी यह नमामि गंगे में, नमामि गंगे प्रोजेक्ट को पूर्ण रूप से, शत प्रतिशत दी जाएगी और उससे नमामि गंगे प्रोजेक्ट को और तेज़ गति देने में लाभ होगा। मैं समझता हूँ एक बहुत अच्छा यह प्रयोग रहा है, गुजरात में भी रहा है, अब केंद्र सरकार में रहते हुए प्रधानमंत्री के नाते माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी ने सभी वस्तु जनता के समक्ष रखी हैं और बड़ा इंटरेस्टिंग था जो मैंने देखा, शायद आज और कल यह इस प्रकार से प्रोसेस चलेगा कुछ वस्तुओं का और बाकी वस्तुओं का फिर एक अलग प्रोसेस से मुझे अभी-अभी बताया गया एनजीएमए के अधिकारियों द्वारा कि बाकी जो वस्तु हैं जो थोड़ी बड़ी वस्तु हैं जिसकी वैल्यू थोड़ी अधिक है उनका एक अलग प्रोसेस से आगे चलकर कुछ दिनों के लिए उसको भी रखा जायेगा और लोग उसको भी आकर कर सकते हैं। यह ट्रेडिशनल ऑक्शन के स्टाइल से छोटी वस्तुएं हो रही हैं आगे चलकर फिर मॉडर्न डिजिटल प्रोसेस से वह ऑक्शन को आगे बढ़ाया जायेगा।

पर यह बहुत अच्छा काम है और इसमें पूरी राशि नमामि गंगे में जो जाएगी तो एक प्रकार से यह 1900 जो कार्यक्रमों में यह भेंट दी गयी है उन कार्यक्रमों के आयोजकों को और जो जनता इन कार्यक्रमों में आयी है उनके लिए भी एक बहुत बड़ा सन्देश है कि जो उन्होंने प्रधानमंत्री जी को भेंट दी वह आहुति नमामि गंगे में हमारी गंगा माँ को साफ़ करने में इस्तेमाल हो रही है यह भी एक बहुत बड़ा सन्देश पूरे देश भर में जायेगा। मैं माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी का धन्यवाद करता हूँ कि इतनी अच्छी पहल उन्होंने आज यहाँ पर की है।

मैंने वास्तव में आप सबको इसलिए भी बुलाया था क्योंकि कल ही खुशखबरी मिली कि चीफ कमिशनर ऑफ़ रेलवे सेफ्टी ने जो नयी ट्रेन जिसका हम सभी को बेसब्री से इंतज़ार था, जिसको हमने जब इसको conceptualise किया था ट्रेन-18 का नाम दिया था। स्वाभाविक रूप से वह एक ट्रेन-18 उस समय में कल्पना के हिसाब से यह थी कि एक नई ट्रेन जो भारत में डिज़ाइन हो, भारत में उसके सब पुर्ज़े बने, सब पार्ट्स बने और भारत की शान बने और फिर भारत से पूरे विश्व में इसका एक्सपोर्ट हो ऐसी एक ट्रेन भारत में बनानी चाहिए। कब तक हम विदेशी डिज़ाइन की बनाई हुई ट्रेन्स भारत में चलाएंगे और कब तक सिर्फ विदेशी टेक्नोलॉजी पर भारत निर्भर रहेगा, यह माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी की बहुत तीव्र इच्छा थी कि मेक इन इंडिया के तहत एक अच्छी भारत में बनाई जाये ट्रेन।

मेरे पूर्व रेल मंत्री माननीय सदानंद गौड़ा जी और माननीय सुरेश प्रभु जी ने इस प्रोजेक्ट को आगे बढ़ाया, और मुझे ख़ुशी है कि एक अत्याधुनिक विश्वस्तरीय ट्रेन भारत में डिज़ाइन हुई, भारत में बनी और अब भारतियों की सेवा में जल्द ही हम इसको पेश करेंगे।

इसको हमने सोचा है कि इसका नाम, इसकी एक विशेष पहचान भी होनी चाहिए और इसको एक विशेष पहचान के रूप में एक नाम दिया जाये जो नाम भारत के साथ जुड़ा हो, हम सबके लिए वन्दनीय हो, हम सबकी शान है भारतीय 125 करोड़ भारतियों की शान बने। और हमने पूरी व्यवस्था से इसके बारे में क्राउड सोर्सिंग करके अलग-अलग नाम के सुझाव लिए, मैं उन सभी लोगों का धन्यवाद करना चाहूंगा जिन्होंने अलग-अलग नाम के सुझाव दिए लेकिन चुना तो एक ही जाने वाला है नाम। तो आप सबको आज बुलाने का हेतु यही था कि अब वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस देश की सेवा में लगेगी, वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस देश की शान बनेगी, वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस पूर्ण रूप से भारत में बनाई गई, डिज़ाइन की गयी, हमारे भारत के इंजीनियरों के द्वारा इसका निर्माण किया गया, हमारे भारत के रेल कर्मचारियों ने इसको इंटीग्रेटेड कोच फैक्ट्री चेन्नई में बनाया। और यह वंदनीय उपलब्धता को हम वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस के नाम से दिल्ली से बनारस तक चलाएंगे, मात्र 18 महीने में इस ट्रेन के डिज़ाइन से लेकर प्रोटोटाइप डेवलपमेंट तक, उसमें डेवेलोप करना, कॉन्सेप्ट बनाना, पुर्ज़े ऑर्डर करना, पुर्ज़ों का भी डिज़ाइन करना, पूरी ट्रेन बनाना यह अपने आपमें शायद एक वर्ल्ड रिकॉर्ड होगा कि 18 महीने में पूरी ट्रेन तैयार की गयी और मेक इन इंडिया विश्वस्तरीय ट्रेनें बना सकती है इसका यह जीता जागता उदाहरण है।

आपमें से कई मित्रों ने तो शायद देखी भी है ट्रेन मेरे साथ जाकर और आप सब एग्री करेंगे कि यह भारत की पहली indigenous, totally indigenous semi-high speed train वास्तव में वंदनीय है, वास्तव में हम सबके लिए भारत माता के लिए शान की बात है। तो वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस इसका नाम होगा, यह दिल्ली से बनारस तक का सफर जो आज के दिन लगभग 11.5-12 घंटे में होता है यह मात्र 8 घंटे में करेगी और कानपुर और इलाहाबाद रुकते हुए दिल्ली से बनारस पहुंचेगी, 16 कोचेस होंगे इसमें जिसमें दो एग्जीक्यूटिव चेयर कार और 14 चेयर कार इस प्रकार से 16 कोच की यह ट्रेन होगी। और बहुत ही इसमें सुरक्षा के हिसाब से सेफ्टी अच्छी रही, एयर सस्पेंशन अच्छा रहे जिससे सुगम यात्रा हो लोगों की, एयर कंडीशन है पूरी ट्रेन, सभी ट्रेन जुडी हुई है आप शुरू से लेकर आखिर तक इसमें अंदर जा सकते हैं, एक डब्बे से दूसरे डब्बे में जा सकते हैं, सभी दरवाज़े बंद होंगे उसके बाद यह ट्रेन चलेगी, सेंट्रली कंट्रोल्ड है ऑटोमैटिक प्लग डोर्स, जब ट्रेन रुकेगी तो इसमें से सीढ़ियां बाहर निकलेंगी यात्रियों को सुविधाजनक प्लेटफार्म पर उतरने को मिल जाये।

इसमें दो कोचेस दोनों एंड्स पर दिव्यांगों के लिए डिज़ाइन किये गए हैं, दिव्यांगों को हर प्रकार की उसमें सुविधा मिले, उसके टॉयलेट भी दिव्यांगों के हिसाब से बनाये गए हैं दोनों कोचेस में, दिव्यांग फ्रेंडली कोचेस हैं।

इंफोटेनमेंट – ट्रेन के ऊपर इसमें अच्छी एंटरटेनमेंट मिले और अच्छी इनफार्मेशन मिले, लोगों को जानकारियां भी मिलें और मनोरंजन भी मिले, तो इंफोटेनमेंट की सुविधा भी इसमें दी गयी है। और ट्रेन की स्पीड क्या चल रही है, कहाँ पर अभी पहुंची है, कितने समय में अगला डेस्टिनेशन आएगा यह सब चीज़ जीपीएस के माध्यम से सभी यात्रियों को उपलब्ध रहेगी।

टॉयलेट्स का डिज़ाइन वास्तव में अपने आपमें यूनीक है, टच-फ्री टॉयलेट्स हैं, सैनिटेशन की सब सुविधा उसमें दी गयी है, ब्रेकिंग सिस्टम भी बड़ा मॉडर्न ब्रेकिंग सिस्टम इसमें डिज़ाइन किया है हमारे इंजीनियरस ने। और जब स्लो होती है या फ़ास्ट होती है तो उसकी भी जो रिजेनरेटिव इलेक्ट्रिसिटी कैपेसिटी है वह भी ट्रेन को पावर करेगी तो एनर्जी एफिशिएंट भी यह ट्रेन बनाई गयी है जो इस सरकार की एक महत्वपूर्ण कदम रहे हैं एनर्जी एफिशिएंसी की उसमें भी एक पहल करती है यह।

तो वास्तव में अपने आपमें यह वंदनीय ट्रेन है, भारत की शान है इसलिए वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस अब शीघ्र ही माननीय प्रधानमंत्री श्री नरेंद्र मोदी जी के करकमलों से हम इसको फ्लैग-ऑफ करने का अब निमंत्रण कल उनको भेजेंगे। सीसीआरएस की परमिशन 25 तारीख को इशू हुई है मुझे कल ही जानकारी मिली, गणतंत्र दिवस पर इससे अच्छा भेंट मैं समझता हूँ एक रेल मंत्री ने नाते मुझे और कुछ नहीं हो सकती थी। और मैं सभी भारतीय रेल के अफसरों का, सभी भारतीय रेल के कर्मचारियों का तहे दिल से आभारी हूँ, उन सबको अभिनन्दन करता हूँ, बधाई देता हूँ उनके काम के लिए और उनकी इस उपलब्धता के लिए।

बहुत-बहुत धन्यवाद।

 

प्रश्न-उत्तर

प्रश्न: सर किराया कैसे होगा?

उत्तर: वह अभी तय करेंगे, आहिस्ते-आहिस्ते।

प्रश्न: …

उत्तर: अब पार्लियामेंट सेशन शुरू होने वाला है एक तारीख को तो प्रधानमंत्री जी का डेट, 31 के बाद का डेट कोई न कोई पार्लियामेंट सेशन के दौरान शायद मुश्किल हो सकता है।

प्रश्न: सर फरवरी में हो जायेगा सर?

उत्तर: अब क्लीयरेंस आ गयी है अब कभी भी हो सकता है।

प्रश्न: सर एक्सपोर्ट कब शुरू होगा इसका?

उत्तर: अब जैसे-जैसे इसकी प्रोडक्शन बढ़ेगी, अब मैंने बोर्ड को रिक्वेस्ट की है कि अब इसको धीमी गति से न बनाया जाये। जो माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी की कल्पना और सोच रहती है वह रहती है तेज़ गति से विकास होना चाहिए। तो पहले इनका प्लान है कि इन्होंने प्रोटोटाइप दो ट्रेन का किया था और बोर्ड के मन में शायद 30 ट्रेंस का सैंक्शन है पर मैं मानता हूँ, मैं भी खुश नहीं हूँ और प्रधानमंत्री जी भी 30 ट्रेन्स से संतुष्ट नहीं हो सकते हैं। तो अब मैंने बोर्ड से रिक्वेस्ट की है कि इसको स्केल अप किया जाये और मेरा तो मानना है जैसे-जैसे इसको स्केल-अप करेंगे तो इसका कॉस्ट भी कम होगा क्योंकि जब प्रोडक्शन बड़े पैमाने पर होगी तो स्वाभाविक रूप से इसके पार्ट्स भी और सस्ते होंगे और ट्रेन और ज़्यादा बनेंगी। पहले मैं चाहता हूँ कि हमारे देश की जनता को यह सुविधा मिले जब सरप्लस प्रोडक्शन होगी तो हम इसको एक्सपोर्ट भी करेंगे।

Today, Minister of Railways & Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal announced the name Vande Bharat Express for Train 18, acknowledging its made-in-India status. He called it a ‘vandaniya’ step towards realisation of New India vision. This train set has been manufactured by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in the period of 18 months under ‘Make in India’ program.

Since the launch of Rajdhani trains, Vande Bharat Express is the next major leap for Indian Railways in terms of speed and convenience. It is India’s first semi-high speed train equipped with world class passenger amenities.

It can achieve high speeds (max speed of 160 kmph) due to faster acceleration & deceleration and will reduced journey time by 25% to 45%. Scheduled commute between New Delhi & Varanasi will take approximately 8 hours making it 40-50% faster than the fastest train currently connecting these two cities.

Vande Bharat Express incorporates many modern features which debut for the very first time on Indian Railways. It has been provided with ‘State of the Art’ passenger amenities like On-board wifi entertainment, GPS based passenger information system, CCTVs, bio-vacuum toilets, rotating chairs in executive class, etc. at par with global standards. It also has provision of Divyang-friendly facilities. It will have 16 coaches with Chair Car type configuration with 2 Executive Class Chair Cars and 14 Chair Cars.

Further, it has intelligent braking system with power regeneration for better energy efficiency thereby making it cost, energy and environment efficient.

Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been requested to flag off this train. This is a momentous progress towards New India.

Source: http://pib.nic.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1561592

…run the programme so beautifully, well done and keep up this enthusiasm. My colleague and very senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, someone who has dedicated a whole lifetime in the CBDT, who has graced this occasion. And I was asking Ajay Bhushanji, do other services also come in such a programme, he said no, they are all our very own. We all work together as a team, and I think that’s a great sense of satisfaction to us.

Other members of the CBIC colleagues from different services, all the awardees today who have done the nation proud with their sincerity, hard work, commitment, intelligence – I saw a number of intelligence officers get awards – and I am sure, integrity. And all the very distinguished ladies and gentlemen present here today. At the outset, I am only standing in for Shri Arun Jaitleyji, but I had a chance to talk to him late last night and, actually, even early morning today. And he is in good health, recovering very rapidly. And I am sure all of you join me in wishing him the best of health and many-many years of service to society.

He has also sent you his regards, his best wishes and complimented all the award winners. And, therefore, all the comments that Mr Dash made or Ajay Bhushanji made should rightfully go to Shri Arun Jaitleyji and the stewardship of the department that he has very ably done over the last five years. And certainly, under his leadership we have seen some historic things happening in the GST, in IBC, in reforming the tax structures, reforming the administration of different taxes, collectively, helping us achieve such transformational results. The 66 point jump in the ease of doing business ranking, securing our borders, yet making them seamless, easier to trade and making India one of the brightest spots in the world economy today.

The World’s Custom Organization has declared today as International Customs Day. Its 66 years since we are celebrating this. We have come a long way over these years, and I am sure there is a long way, long road ahead of us also. But I am delighted to read the theme that you have finalized for today’s programme, recognizing the important role that customs officials and agencies play in securing the borders; smart borders for seamless trade, travel and transport, truly encompasses our job very beautifully.

And, this collective effort across the world on these lines am sure will help us actually transform the way government, it’s agencies and customers or traders or businessmen work with each other. I personally believe the true test of our success will be the day when every customer with whom all of us are engaged looks upon us as a friend, not as an adversary. And this customer-friendly approach in my view will give us far-far greater results than any other approach.

Of course, we have to trust the customers with a great degree of intelligence. After all, we are here to do a job. We are here to do a job to ensure that the revenues of the government, the revenues which are rightfully due to be collected, and which go to serve the poor of India, which go to create infrastructure, which go to develop security for our borders should not be lost, no revenue should be lost. But I do believe that the many steps that have been taken over the last few years to create an atmosphere where our officers should be welcomed rather than avoided, will continue in the years to come.

All of us will collectively work to make our organization much more customer-centric, customer-friendly, customer-focused, focused on making it easier to transact, easier to do business, yet conscious of our responsibility to the nation, to the people of India to ensure that the right taxes are paid. In fact, at this stage I can only say that I also appeal to the business community and I was happy to see that you also recognize some private sector persons or organizations.

But I would also appeal to the business community that it’s time to do business ethically and do business straight. Those days are gone when we had an era of very high taxes and, therefore, or very high import duties, very high indirect and direct taxes, which caused people to look at different avenues to save tax. There was also the element of misuse of public funds. I myself come from the private sector and very often you would hear friends say that if we are paying these high taxes and if it’s not put to good use, then should we be paying such high taxes?

In the last few years, there has been a very honest attempt to change that culture, both to make the administration more taxpayer-friendly, to continue to continuously bring down tax rates, make compliance easier, make compliance more technology-driven. And I must mention, ensuring that every rupee of tax that is collected with your efforts is put to good use, is used for the welfare and the wider good of society, is used to provide electricity to that child who for generations whose family has not seen electricity.

Every rupee of tax paid by an honest taxpayer, collected by your hard work and your administration is used to give a home to those without a shelter, is used to create a wide network of roads, highways, seaways, airways, take digital connectivity to the remotest villages, develop rural infrastructure, take rural roads to 600,000 villages in the country and ensure dignity for our women, dignity for our sisters, ensure a better future for the youth of India.

And it is only when taxes collected honestly are put to good use honestly that one can truly feel a sense of redemption, a sense of satisfaction for a job well done. And I must compliment all of you, particularly, the awardees today, for all the work that you have all put in to change the culture of working, change the image of the department. I do believe it is still work in process. One should never rest satisfied that, oh, we have done so much and more and everything is alright. There is still a lot more road to be traversed. There is still a lot more potential for simplification, transparency, ease of operations, and I personally believe that it’s always the actions of a few people which causes agony to our much larger set of people. And it’s both ways – be it the business community, be it our departments.

It’s not as if every businessman is cheating on taxes. And so also, it’s not as if governments, bureaucrats, people in power, administration are all engaged in wrongdoing. But it is always the few black sheep which cause a generalization in society or in the public mind that things are not going right.

Very often, in the over enthusiasm of tax administration, we become overzealous also, and that causes a lot of agony, particularly, to the honest taxpayers who believes that I have done no wrong, but why should I be in the general category of facing the wrath of tax administration. Similarly, when people generally comment about administration of different departments of the government or bureaucracy or all the wings of democracy, it’s very unfortunate that all are brushed in the same language or same tone. And, therefore, it become incumbent on all of us to collectively recognize our responsibility.

After all, each one of us as an individual represents a wider whole, I am told some 80,000 officers. Each one of us will have to recognize that my actions are going to reflect on the image of 79,999 of my colleagues, and every single step that I take is a step which is assumed to be taken by all my brothers and sisters who have worked with me or … their life for the nation, who have worked to serve the nation.

After all, what are all of we, whether Shiv Pratapji or me on the political end, all of you on the administrative end. And I personally believe all the people engaged in trade, business, the workers, the managers, the entire social fabric is all working for a collective goal, a better tomorrow for the people of India. And both you and me as public servants have a role to administer that better good for the people of India.

And I think if, collectively, all of us become focused on our commitment on the day we joined service, or the office that I took that I will do my job diligently. I will do my job honestly. I will do my job to ensure that every single citizen of this country has a better tomorrow, youth of this country have a better tomorrow, women get a place of dignity in this country. Every section of society, be the farmers, be the workers; all of them get a better future.

I think, collectively, we can transform both by our actions and our deeds the image of our department, the image of our nation and truly make India achieve its rightful place in the comity of nations that it really richly deserves, and that I think is the collective responsibility of all of us in this room. If it is not out of place, I would urge the department to seriously consider crowdsourcing of both feedback from our stakeholders, be the importers-exporters, be the people who are engaged with us in any way – they could be technology suppliers, they could be the housekeeping staff in our offices, and the customs offices, in the ports, people engaged in different ways working with us, if we can get an honest feedback and think in terms of what we can do – possibly also through a crowd-source feedback.

After all, if these 80,000 officers… I have just, actually, yesterday given an instruction in the railways. We have about 247 odd officers, HAG, what you call it, the additional secretary and above, and about 1400 SAGs – joint secretaries and all. I have said we should ask every one of them to provide us some ideas, some suggestions on how we can make the railway a better organization, a more customer-centric organization, a more honest organization. How we can improve the profitability of the railways. How we can give better passenger service, make the travel more exciting, more enjoyable. And, of course, there will be people. I mean, if somebody was to ask me to give ideas, I would start writing, it would be a hundred ideas.

So, I have said every senior officer gives the five best ideas that he feels he would like to share, and all the others give two good ideas. So, I hopefully, will receive some 4000 ideas in this process. Some of them may be repetitive. But imagine if we can work with 4000 suggestions or 2000 suggestions or even a 1000 suggestions, coming from the railway officials, my own sense is we can certainly make the railway a better organization. If you feel that all of our officers can participate, will be happy to participate, you may try to institutionalize a system where we collectively decide. It’s not as if the minister decides or the secretary or your chairman decides, we collectively decide how we can make our organization get the pride of place. And everybody look up to the customs department or to the CBIC, possibly also income tax Sushilji.

How everybody can feel that yes, this department is truly a public servant. He is truly coming to help me. He is truly looking at a way to facilitate my work. He is my friend. I can look up to him. I can walk up to him for guidance. I can talk to him frankly, without fear or rancour of any sort. I can work as a partner with him, not a partner in crime certainly. And I have the confidence, as I said earlier, there could be a few black sheep. If we all work collectively, we can even isolate that black sheep. But we can get that sense of pride in our organization. We can bring in the levels of efficiency that the public really desires from us. We can bring in the levels of transparency that can almost eliminate any potential of misuse on both sides. We can try and simplify the loss further.

And which I think you all have been doing continuously. I see the CBIC in almost every GST Council meeting, for example, has continuously evolved, been customer-centric, taking feedback, improvising. Sometimes, some people even complain and criticize that you are changing too often, but in my view that’s a good thing. If you see a problem and you right it or correct it, I think it reflects a good responsive organization, which is not stuck on its own thinking and refusing to change.

In fact, there is a famous book ‘Life of Pi’, I don’t know if any of you have read it, by Yann Martel, in which he says, ‘if you resist good ideas, you condemn yourself to dinosaurhood.’ All of us know what dinosaurs are. It’s the extinct phase. If you condemn good ideas, you are doomed to become a dinosaur. And our job as a vibrant organization is to continuously look at new ideas, act on those new ideas, work for the collective achievement of a greater goal.

And for those few people who are not aligned to this vision of high transparency, simplification, high integrity, I can only say this that every time either you do a wrong, or you encourage or allow somebody else to do a wrong, keep it at the back of your mind that your action may have caused one sister to not get a toilet in her home, or you action has deprived a child of electricity in his home or your action has caused a farmer not getting his due.

And I am sure, if that remains before our eyes at all times, none of us in this room or any of us public servants, be it in the political firmament of this country, be it the bureaucracy, or any other pillar of democracy will ever do wrong for a petty small gain. But looking at the wider responsibility thrust on all of us, we will all collectively work to make trade more simple, to bring down cost of compliance. We will eliminate, wherever possible, scope for intermediaries, which is also a big cost in the system, create direct interfaces, a more trusting interface with our customers, encourage customers to correspond with their effort also to completely go legit.

And I am very sure that if we keep this greater goal before us, it will motivate all of us to do better. It will give more momentum to our work. It will give more excitement to each one of us in our work, take the drudgery out of it and, collectively, we will now take us from the 80^th position to why not the top 10 in the world?

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. Once again my compliments to the awardees, and I wish all of you and your family members a great year ahead. Thank you.