धन्यवाद धर्मेन्द्र जी, तीन विषयों के बारे में आपको जानकारी दे दूं, एक तो नेशनल इंस्टिट्यूट ऑफ़ डिज़ाइन, अहमदाबाद में बहुत बढ़िया काम कर रहा है, देश में युवा-युवतियों को तैयार कर रहा है नए कौशल के साथ, और भारत से तैयार हुए हुए डिज़ाइनर सिर्फ भारत नहीं पूरे विश्व में आज प्रसिद्ध हैं| इस सरकार ने चार नए NIDs को लगाने का फैसला किया है जिसकी जानकारी पहले भी आपको दी थी| एक NID विजयवाड़ा अमरावती, एक NID जोरहाट असम, एक NID भोपाल मध्य प्रदेश और एक NID कुरुक्षेत्र हरियाणा| अब इन चारों NIDs को Institutions of National Importance (INI) का दर्जा दिया जायेगा और जो National Institute of Design, Vijaywada थी उसका नाम बदलकर National Institute of Design, Amravati किया जायेगा|

इन दोनों महत्वपूर्ण निर्णयों के लिए जो NID Act 2014 है उसमें परिवर्तन करना पड़ेगा वह amendments आज कैबिनेट ने मंजूरी दी, इसी के साथ-साथ जो principal designer हैं उनको अब professor का equivalent दर्जा दिया जायेगा| हम समझते हैं कि यह महत्वपूर्ण निर्णय इसलिए है कि हमारे भारत के युवा-युवतियों का कौशल पूरे देश में अवेलेबल है उसको प्रोत्साहन मिलेगी, सभी को NID अहमदाबाद की तरफ नहीं जाना पड़ेगा, अब जोरहाट में भी होगा, कुरुक्षेत्र में भी होगा, अमरावती में भी होगा और भोपाल में भी होगा| तो मैं समझता हूँ देश के चारों-पांचों प्रमुख इलाकों में National Institute of Design अब नए तरीके से लोगों को तैयार करेगा, विश्वभर में भारत के डिज़ाइन प्रसिद्ध हैं और इसके माध्यम से हमारे युवा-युवतियों को विश्वभर में जाने का मौका भी मिलेगा|

एक निर्णय मुंबई से संबंधित कई वर्षों से लंबित पड़ा था, राष्ट्रीय केमीकल्स एंड फ़र्टिलाइज़र्स ने कुछ ज़मीन मुंबई में MMRDA और Municipal Corporation को दी थी जिसके तहत वह Eastern Freeway बना था जिसने काफी unclog किया मुंबई के ट्रैफिक को| यह विषय भी कई वर्षों से पेंडिंग पड़ा हुआ था उसमें यह लैंड जो RCF ने दी थी उसके तहत उनको Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) अब महाराष्ट्र की सरकार ने दिए हैं जिसके वह monetize करके RCF को भी आमदनी हो जाएगी और महाराष्ट्र सरकार को लगभग 12 एकड़ ज़मीन एक प्रकार से मुफ्त में मिल जाएगी in view of TDR, उस फैसले को भी आज कैबिनेट ने post facto approval देकर legal weight दे दिया| यह win-win solution है महाराष्ट्र, मुंबई के लिए भी और केंद्र सरकार के उपक्रम RCF के लिए भी| तो यह भी निर्णय आज लिया गया कि यह जो Transferable Development Rights certificates मिलेंगे इसको RCF monetize करके पैसा उसमें से कमा सकती है|

एक महत्वपूर्ण निर्णय एक प्रकार से भारत सरकार जबसे माननीय प्रधानमंत्री नरेन्द्र मोदी जी ने कमान संभाली है 2014 से लगातार जो कोशिश कर रहा है कि भारतीय रेल पूरी तरीके से इलेक्ट्रिक ट्रैक्शन पर चले और हमारी डिपेंडेंस ऑन इम्पोर्टेड फ्यूल कम हो सके, और रेलवे के खर्चे भी कम हो सकें| बार-बार यह बात निकलती है कि पैसेंजर फेयर कम होने के कारण रेलवे के ऑपरेशनल रेश्यो में काफी कठिनाई है, अभी 7^th Pay Commission आने के बाद ऑपरेशनल रेश्यो और बिगड़ भी गया है|

ऐसी परिस्थिति में प्रधानमंत्री जी की इच्छा रहती है कि एफिशिएंसी सुधार करी जाये और कॉस्ट सेविंग के माध्यम से रेलवे को फिर एक बार प्रॉफिट में लाया जाये जिससे पैसेंजर के ऊपर उसका बोझ न आये और पैसेंजर को अच्छी सुविधाएं बिना बोझे के कैसे दे सकें और साथ ही साथ प्रदूषण भी कैसे कम कर सकें क्लाइमेट चेंज के प्रति हमारी ज़िम्मेदारी है, हमारा निश्चय है कि भारत को प्रदूषण-मुक्त किया जाये, कम किया जाये जिसके लिए ट्रेनों में भी डीजल ट्रैक्शन कम करके इलेक्ट्रिक ट्रैक्शन को प्रोत्साहन देने का निर्णय तीन वर्ष पहले भारत सरकार ने लिए था|

आज लगभग 46% रेलवे के रूट एलेक्ट्रिफ़ाइड हैं, 20,000 किलोमीटर पर अब काम चल रहा है जिससे लगभग 78% तक एलेक्ट्रिफाइ हो जायेगा भारतीय रेल| आज कैबिनेट ने बाकी जो बैलेंस 13,000 किलोमीटर रह गए हैं उसको 12,000 करोड़ की लागत पर उसको भी मंजूरी दे दी, 12,134 करोड़ की लागत पर, बैलेंस 13,675 किलोमीटर को एलेक्ट्रिफाइ करने की मंजूरी दे दी| शायद विश्व की पहली इतनी बड़ी रेलवे होगी 1,20,000 किलोमीटर के करीब, लाइन किलोमीटर रेलवे के लगे हुए हैं, इतनी बड़ी रेलवे विश्व में और कोई नहीं है जिसने एलेक्ट्रिफाइ किया हो अपनी रेल व्यवस्था को शत-प्रतिशत|

और मैं समझता हूँ इससे जो बचत होगी, आज का अनुमान है लगभग 13-14,000 करोड़ रुपये की सालाना बचत, आगे चलकर वह बचत और भी बढ़ जाएगी अगर डीजल के दाम, रेलवे के दाम कम नहीं होते हैं| तो मैं समझता हूँ कि एक प्रकार से यह महत्वपूर्ण निर्णय भारत के फॉरेन एक्सचेंज को भी बचाएगा, भारत में प्रदूषण भी कम करेगा और रेलवे फास्टर हो, सेफर हो, सुविधाजनक यात्रा लोगों को मिल सके इन सब चीज़ों के लिए इलेक्ट्रिफिकेशन का एक महत्वपूर्ण योजना रही है|

यह योजना को आज मंजूरी मिली है, इससे लाइन कैपेसिटी भी सुधरेगी, आजके दिन आप जानते हैं कई ट्रेन में कुछ हिस्सा डीजल पर चलता है, कुछ हिस्सा इलेक्ट्रिकल पर चलता है, रेलवे इंजन चेंज करनी पड़ती है, कई जगह पूरी रूट एलेक्ट्रिफाइ नहीं होने के कारण कुछ हिस्से में एलेक्ट्रिफाइ होने के बावजूद डीजल ट्रेन चलती है| इन सब चीज़ों से निजात मिल जाएगी रेलवे को, अब शुरू से अंत तक एक ही इंजन, इलेक्ट्रिक इंजन ही उसको खींचेगी और उससे रेलवे की एफिशिएंसी और पंक्चुअलिटी में भी सुधार होगा और लाइन कैपेसिटी भी और ज्यादा उपलब्ध हो जाएगी|

एक महत्वपूर्ण डायरेक्शन माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी ने दिया कि एक-एक हिस्से को पूरा एलेक्ट्रिफाइ किया जाये, जैसे अगर मुंबई-दिल्ली जैसे पूरा एलेक्ट्रिफाइड है, अब दिल्ली-हावड़ा को पूरा एलेक्ट्रिफाइ किया जायेगा, हावड़ा-चेन्नई को पूरा एलेक्ट्रिफाइ किया जायेगा, दिल्ली-चेन्नई को पूरा एलेक्ट्रिफाइ किया जायेगा| तो एक-एक सेक्शन को लेकर और प्रमुखतः जो हेवी ड्यूटी सेक्शन्ज़ हैं जहाँ ज्यादा गाड़ियाँ चलती हैं उसको एंड-टु-एंड एलेक्ट्रिफाइ करेंगे जिससे ट्रैक्शन चेंज नहीं करना पड़ेगा|

एक स्वाभाविक है सवाल उठता है कि जो अभी डीजल इंजन हैं रेलवे में उसका क्या होगा? उसके लिए भी रेलवे के इंजीनियरों ने बहुत ही अच्छा शोध करके, रिसर्च करके एक्सिस्टिंग डीजल इंजन को कैसे इलेक्ट्रिक में कन्वर्ट करना यह तैयारी कर ली है| और जब-जब पीरियाडिक ओवरहॉल के लिए डीजल इंजन आएगी तो पीरियाडिक ओवरहॉल को डीजल टु डीजल करने के बदले आधे खर्चे में हम उसको डीजल से इलेक्ट्रिक कर पाएंगे तो यह खर्चा तो अलग बचेगा| जो डीजल से इलेक्ट्रिक कन्वर्ट करके हम जो ओवरहॉलिंग के खर्चे में भी बचत करेंगे यह अलग रेलवे की बचत होगी आगे चलकर|

जहाँ-जहाँ पर डीजल लोकोमोटिव बनते हैं उनको और उनके वेंडर्स के पास जो स्टॉक है उसको एग्जॉस्ट करने के बाद वहां पर भी हम इलेक्ट्रिक इंजन बनाने का कैपेसिटी बढ़ाएंगे और इन वेंडर्स को इलेक्ट्रिक इंजन के कंपोनेंट्स के लिए तैयार करेंगे जो एक प्रकार से विन-विन सलूशन भारतीय रेल के लिए भी, भारतीय रेल की फैक्ट्रीज के लिए भी और भारतीय रेल के सभी स्टेकहोल्डर्स/सप्लायर के लिए भी ढूँढा गया है| और जो हमें डीजल इंजन स्टैंड-बय अरेंजमेंट के लिए कभी इलेक्ट्रिक में फेलियर हो या कोई तकलीफ हो तो डीजल से गाड़ियाँ चलानी पड़ती हैं, या बॉर्डर एरियाज में जहाँ इलेक्ट्रिक ट्रैक्शन नहीं है वहां पर जो डीजल पर चलती हैं गाड़ियाँ उसके लिए आलरेडी भारत सरकार ने एक नयी फैक्ट्री जो प्रदूषण-मुक्त लगभग, बहुत ही कम प्रदूषण देनी वाली डीजल इंजन बनाएगी और भारतीय रेल की पुर्णतः व्यवस्था अब प्रदूषण-मुक्त करने की तरफ हमने सब कदम ले लिए, यह आखिरी कदम आज लेने का फैसला आज माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी की अध्यक्षता में कैबिनेट ने लिए|

बहुत-बहुत धन्यवाद|

 

Q&A

A: This government stands committed to ensuring that farmers get 50% over their cost of production. MSP has been designed and announced based on that for all the crops, in fact, we have expanded the number of crops. Dr. MS Swaminathan has already confirmed and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for all his proactive steps towards farmers’ welfare, including implementation of the 50% formula. In addition to that, statistics bear out that this government in four years has provided far-far more funds than any time in the past. As an example, in Maharashtra in the 10 years before the Devendra Fadnavis’ government came in, the total procurement that Maharashtra state government had done was about 400 crore rupees in 10 years, and in two and a half years, Devendra Fadnavis government has procured about six and a half or 7,000 crores worth of food grains and different products.

This government will ensure that farmers get their price that we have assured them. We work in partnership with all stakeholders with the state government, the central government and state governments working together. We will ensure that there is no manipulation of the market through a more transparent market mechanism, and auctions take place, and price determined by auctions will be the price, if at all the state government approaches the centre and wants to participate through the Bhavantar Yojana. We will encourage states and FCI, and all the bodies of the central government to pick up more and more material if there is a price reduction or if the MSP is not available on any product in the market place.

Obviously, you all appreciate it is not that all the products all the time have to be procured fully so that farmers gets MSP. Most products sell at a good price in the market. It depends on market forces and circumstances, different areas occasionally require this kind of support, for which this government stands fully committed. And the figures he read out that where earlier the procurement used to be 3000 crores, this government increased it to 34,000 crores. So, Modi government has already increased procurement 10 times, which is a certificate, which is a proof that we stand committed to actually reaching benefit to the farmers.

Q: You have decided to go 100% electrification of railway tracks, what happens to the GE factory on diesel?

A: I already said it in the opening remarks, you might have missed it. We will need engines for backup wherever there is any problem in the electric system. We will need diesel engines in the border areas, then we can look at exporting these engines also. So various opportunities and possibilities exist, and the process of electrification takes time also. Our idea is that electrification should become the primary source of ensuring that we don’t have pollution and railways works on electric. Diesel will be required always, and all over the world. Switzerland has a 100% electric, but they have a network of standby arrangements which are required in the event of any problem.

Q: So, annually sir, how many diesel engines will you put up on GE?

A: We have estimated about 700 to 1000 engines will be required in the border areas and for stand-by in such a large network.

Q: So from GE you will be procuring that much per year?

A: Over 12 or 14 years, not per year – over 12 or 14 years.

Q: आपने कहा आरसीएफ को लगभग कितनी रकम मिलने की उम्मीद है उसमें?

A: वह अभी टीडीआर ऑक्शन करेंगे, जो ऑक्शन में पैसा आएगा|

Q: इलेक्ट्रिफिकेशन ऑफ़ रेलवेज सर अभी आपने कहा कि आप करने जा रहे हैं, लेकिन अभी की अगर में बात करूँ तो करीबन 18,000 करोड़ के आस पास का डीजल जो है consume करता है, और 300 करोड़ लीटर के आस पास जो है consume रेलवे करता है, 5% डीजल की कीमतों में बढ़ोतरी हुई है उसका रेलवे की प्रोफिटेबिलिटी पर अभी क्या असर दिख रहा है?

A: स्वाभाविक है थोड़ा होता है, उसको हम कम करने के लिए ही तो इलेक्ट्रिफिकेशन को और बढ़ावा दे रहे हैं|

Thank you.

 

I am not one used to reading out speeches, so I landed up my typical off the cuff comments, sometimes not very charitable also, as some of my colleagues experience. But in one of those comments that I made during the award ceremony, I had said that now we should move the needle from what we are doing, the typical ‘my vehicle has 3% better efficiency than yours’ and all those small ticket ideas, around which the award function was revolving, and ‘my design or aerodynamics is slightly better than somebody else’s design’ and stuff like that. ‘I will be faster into Euro-VI or BS-VI compared to the other’ and these were the typical things I heard there.

And I had almost prophetically, I think in retrospect, at that point of time ventured to suggest that India with its low base of car ownership – and I think many speakers this morning resonated almost on similar lines – has an opportunity to leapfrog where the first vehicle that an Indian buys can be an electric vehicle rather than a vehicle that is run on petrol or diesel. And almost without any plan or without any thoughts behind it, I had just ventured to suggest that we should actually be aiming that India leads the world in e-mobility and by 2030, every single vehicle sold in this country is an electric vehicle.

And maybe, if somebody goes back to my Twitter account or my Facebook, you may find that whole award function and my thoughts and comments available on the social media or the Youtube platform. And ever since then, this has been one of those subjects about which I personally have been very passionate, but more importantly, the entire government has worked as a team. And it is not one or two or three departments, it was almost every wing of the government of India was conspiring to achieve some game-changing and transformational results in this story.

So, we had meetings under the leadership of Mr Nitin Gadkari, where several Ministries would get together – Renewable Energy, Power, The Heavy Industries Ministry. Then when we saw that the issue is becoming larger and it’s having dimensions which are multi-dimensional, we got the Niti Aayog into the picture and honourable Prime Minister himself led from the front, as Chairman of Niti Aayog and as the honourable Prime Minister of India, picking out what could be the threads of a revolution in the way we provide for the future of Indian mobility.

And I am delighted that today you have been able to bring together so many stakeholders from different fields of the value chain. I am delighted that you are looking at not only automobiles, but also looking at mobility in a more holistic perspective, which is exactly how it should be. In fact, we have recently decided that we will be bringing all the logistics in the government of India under a common framework, so that we can do more integrated planning under the Ministry of Commerce, which I think Anoop you would be the Chairman of that? It’s not been announced? But have I spoken before turn? But I don’t know, is it already public or have I spoken before turn? Done? Okay!

But we have actually decided that all of us – railways, road transport and entire shipping, aviation – all of us, while we are working in our own individual areas, holistically to plan for the logistics sector and, particularly, with a view to bring down the cost of logistics to more comparable international levels of 7-8% from the 12-13-14% some industries suggest is the cost.

We have created an inter-ministerial group, which will be led by honourable Shri Suresh Prabhu ji, and on an operating level, Mr Vadhavan would be leading and working in consort with all the other Ministries, so that we can really give a thrust to the future of logistics in the country. I see she’s already got a pen and paper out and we have got a news report getting out very quickly.

But truly, I think what we heard today was very-very encouraging in the morning, and I am sure as we… I hope you have a very interactive session during the day. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to sit through the whole period, but I will try to spend as much time as I can before my next meeting. But clearly, we recognize the importance of engaging with technology, moving with the times, or rather, as the honourable Prime Minster suggested, being ahead of the times.

We want India to lead the global effort on e-mobility, somewhat akin to our leadership on the LED light bulbs programme, where thanks to the massive roll-out that India, under Prime Minister’s leadership, took upon itself. And, in fact, our original target on LED bulbs was we bring it down to double digit, which when people asked me what do you mean by double digit? Because they were.. .. how can something which costs Rs 500 or Rs 600 come down to double digits? And even I didn’t know how it would come down, but I had said I want it to be in double digits.

My expectation was ki if I push too hard, तो चलो कम तो होगा, but I didn’t know ki forget double digit, it will fall to 50 bucks a bulb – and high quality bulb supplied by probably some of the world’s best manufacturers. I remember Philips bidding Rs 38 for a 9 watt bulb – Rs 38, about 2 years ago, and it was far beyond even what we had imagined.

But I would like to share with you what in my perspective are going to be some of the principal ingredients, which many companies don’t agree with me, so I have all sorts of people coming and saying continue the same programme for some transitional period, two years, three years, we need some support. To my mind, and you all can deliberate on it during the course of your discussions, the bane of any industry and its success is subsidy. The first thing I did when I took charge of the Power Ministry and the energy efficiency programme, the LED programme, was to remove all subsidies.

I still remember, the LED bulbs used to be procured by government at Rs 310, plus taxes, plus marketing cost, plus distribution cost. It would land up costing Rs 600, they would give a Rs 100 subsidy and sell it for Rs 500. And in the process, all that they would manage to sell was half a million or 600,000 LED bulbs in a year.

The first decision we took was stop the subsidy. Because, after all, the subsidy was becoming the constraint. Suppose I give Rs 100 as a subsidy and finance, ultimately, there will always be a limitation of finance. If they give me a million dollars also, or 10 million or a 100 million dollars, I will at best in a 100 million dollars be able to do 70 million bulbs. But our target was 770 million bulbs to be replaced in India in 4 years, and I am delighted to share with you, without subsidy, with prices having fallen 87%, no compromise on quality or technical specs, increased lumination from 7 watts to 9 watts, from the earlier programme, we have already been able to sell in India between the private sector and the government company which initiated this programme 1.18 billion bulbs in three years and 4 months – 1180 million.

Four years are not yet up. 1^st May was the first bulb sold in 2015, so three years and four months and again 770 million, we are 1,180 million already – 118 crore bulbs, at prices which are abysmally low, zero subsidy. So I would urge all of you, we will have to look at economies of scale, we will have to look at the volume gain.

EESL came out with a 10,000 car tender. It was the world’s largest single procurement of e-vehicles. I feel sad that the companies have not yet performed, but I am told one of the companies said they were willing to perform but the charging infrastructure is not up as yet. So, what the purpose of this Mobility Conference and Summit is that we all put on the table our thoughts, bring out the best ideas, and with that prepare a holistic mission or a roadmap how we are going to go forward, what the future holds in terms of a cleaner and better way to provide for mobility in the future.

We saw some of the vehicles outside, the bus is looking pretty fancy, but we will also have to provide public buses. Costs have started coming on, the opex is almost very-very low. And I think if we engage with this business to scale with volume, battery is getting manufactured in India in a big way, the concept of swapping batteries is brilliant when it comes to the larger vehicles. Because, otherwise, we are transporting heavy batteries and actually consuming that battery charge only on transporting extremely heavy batteries. So the swapping should be considered as an  idea going forward wherever it’s feasible and it can be easily maintained.

My vision is that we should have charging stations in every petrol pump in this country, every gas station put up forthwith. In fact, the government is willing to support any such initiative that some of you may come up with and we have about 60,000 gas stations. The length and breadth of the country is covered with gas stations. Imagine if we had 60,000 gas stations with the ability to fast charge different types of vehicles..you are game, the game story is almost sorted. And then add to that parking lots, add to that the fact that most vehicles, particularly, the smaller vehicles can jolly well be just charged in your home. You don’t even need to have charging stations anywhere.

But we can set up large amount of charging infrastructure, government is willing to support that. I was also toying with the idea of if at all a subsidy is required we give low-cost energy and all the charging stations we provide power at cost maybe, we don’t cross-subsidize that power for the farmers and all of that. Let this itself be an important priority sector consumption and keep the cost of power for charging low. That could be another way forward.

To my mind, technology and particularly, the various apps that help people connect and share mobility is also a very exciting idea. For the lesser privileged, I think what was talked about this morning on cycles should be considered, may not directly resonate with your logistics agenda, but you must look at that going forward also. And I think it also has a logistics element in it, because after all the last mile delivery even now, Amazon is still struggling with or I am told, Amazon and Flipkart and all of them, are often still struggling with the last mile delivery. So you could jolly well convert that cycle to a small container at the back like we used to have those wada pavs  being sold and idli and coffee being sold on the small cycle base many-many years ago.

You can jolly well have a small cycle, electric powered small cycle with a 3 feet by 4 feet box at the back for the last mile delivery of the small items and typical groceries and food stuffs and stuffs like that. So there is huge potential, it’s for us to see how quickly we can ramp up. One last point we all saw a lot of presentations in the morning. Let’s not stop at intermediate solutions. We saw the progression from petrol cars to probably hybrids and then all of that. I am extremely sad that there is a campaign going on to promote hybrid cars in this country. And it’s a campaign which is trying to run down electric vehicles in order to promote hybrid cars, and the sad part is that that campaign is being run by companies which don’t make electric cars. To sell their hybrid cars they are willing to compromise with the best, they want us to settle for second-best, just because they don’t make electric cars.

I would urge those companies to quickly make electric cars and come to the Indian market, if you want a share of the pie or the big opportunity here. Don’t try to hawk a second-best product to India. Gone are the days that India will settle for anything second-best. We want nothing but the best. I am happy to look at the fuel cell cars, that’s something which you should study.

And I myself have two hybrid cars, so I can say it with authority they are beautiful cars, they are lovely cars, soundless and extremely good. But no saving whatsoever, it must be saving my petrol 10% or 15%, which doesn’t even show up anywhere. So, I think, to my mind, let’s look for the best, let’s look for what is the latest, let’s look at scale, move out of the psychology and the psyche of subsidies and grants and government handholding everything. Let’s try and engage with the latest of technologies, so that we can get the best … for every buck that people spend from their pocket.

And all in all, our effort should be that considering India’s cost dynamics, considering the fact that India and the people of India deserve the best at affordable prices, we must come up with workable solutions, leverage the large market opportunity that is not available anywhere else in the world. Most developed countries have to replaced existing cars or vehicles with a new electric vehicle so there is a cost of what you are going to lose out, whereas in India, we don’t have that added cost.

And let’s scale technology, domestic manufacturing, which also has cost advantages. Let these become the drivers of our programme, and I would think that the aim should continue to be that India moves to a completely 100% manufacturer of electric vehicles by 2030. We should look at engaging more and more to get the logistics cost down to 7 or 8%, which is I think the long-term objective. And we must all of us look at the most modern equipment and modern technologies, and just never settle for second-best, because the youth of India, the future of India is watching what we are doing.

And I would not like any of us ever, and at least we have many youngsters here, but at least Amitabh and Vinesh and Anil and me and Anoop, we don’t want to be blamed by all of you youngsters that we left behind anything but the best for all of you. This one is for all the youth of India.

Thank you.

Mr. Pillai, Mr. Mukesh Nigam, Sunira Bassi ji and the entire team who has been working to make this ‘Aapoorti’ app possible and also putting together today’s very important seminar. Mr. Kashi Nath, Mr. Mathur, Mr. Pathak, other colleagues from the railways, distinguished speakers at the earlier two sessions, probably some of the speakers of the other two sessions also maybe here, valued participants of the seminar, ladies and gentlemen.

I was just seeing the program for the day and it’s quite an impressive set of subjects put together, which to my mind are very relevant in today’s world. The evolving nature of technologies that are changing the way mobility and transportation, both of goods and passengers, is taking place in the country. And I am delighted that the focus has been on both passengers and freight, because ultimately, unless we ensure more efficient movement of freight, we won’t be able to handle the cross subsidy that we are doing on the passenger side. And, therefore, please ensure that the discussions are taken forward in the same spirit and speed with which you have set up today’s seminar.

It’s really a matter of happiness for me that we have a new energy when it comes to engaging with technology in the railways. And as I was listening to some of the information being given about our e-tendering process, it does give a lot of satisfaction that even the chief vigilance commissioner has recognised the good work done by the railways, when it comes to more transparency, integrity of processes and taking forward the e-tendering and e-procurement process on a fast track method.

Just a couple of thoughts that came to mind with the figures that were just given on the number of tenders and the number of vendors. I believe if there are 444,000 tenders, you may like to consider whether many items can be clubbed together. Little bit of data mining could help you reduce these number of tenders because multiplicity of tenders of the same product only adds to cost, inefficiency, and I am sure your procurement will also be inefficient when the same product has been tendered by different zones and tendered at different periods of time, it is also prone to some sort of cartelisation.

So the more you aggregate the numbers, have larger quantities, give opportunity to efficient suppliers to pick up larger quantities out of that business, I believe you will find newer vendors also taking interest and you will able to get more efficient procurement. 150,000 crores of procurement is truly quite a large procurement and even if we can look for an initial saving of 15-20% and by my standards that’s the least that we can save.

My own feeling is that if we bring in more and more efficiency in our procurement processes and payment processes, and engaging with technology in a better way, we can look at even batter savings, but let’s go for at least 15-20% savings without compromise on quality, we should be able to look at better qualities.

I was just looking at some of the major IT initiatives and my office put up in my papers today a list of IT-related items on my dashboard. And my distinguished audience here today will be little surprised but IT-related items on my dashboard, which I monitor, have 27 items which are on top priority, have 27 items on high-priority and 3 items with a medium priority.

Why I mentioned this is to reflect for all of us in the railways to reflect upon the importance that we give to technology and the possibilities that IT opens up for the railways. So, out of 57 items, 27 – half of them are on top and half of them are on high-priority, only three are even considered medium, there may be many more which will be for officers down the line.

Now, all of them, and I was glancing at all of them, to my mind, none of them is anything very great or difficult. It has no, absolutely nothing in this list which could be as earth-shattering as creating a, what 5 or $10 billion company which Uber has now become. It’s nothing very earth-shattering that should take a long period of time. It’s more of literally duplicating what you have already done in a very successful way.

For example, Mr. Pillai has introduced GPS in his zone where he was general manager before being elevated to the Board. It’s a tried successful method. It will help us completely eliminate all fudging of data on train movements. It will help us track 22,000 trains go every day of different sorts, passengers, freight, all of them, we will be able to track all of them on real time basis and the public will be able to track that when we claim that punctuality has significantly improved in the last three or four months, the public will have a benchmark to check it out themselves.

And similarly, not a single item I find that there is anything which will.. we have now taken Wi-Fi to 710 stations. Now it’s a tried and tested model, 710 stations, and I think the Wi-Fi that the railways provides is probably amongst the best in the country. The speed of that Wi-Fi is without compare and I am being a little less humble than I should but I am proud of my people who have done that. Many of these were done with partnership with Google in the first 400 odd stations. Now RailTel is doing it on its own, we are also inviting people to take this up through CSR activities, but the target is we should take it up to 6000, by? What’s the due date Nigam? You don’t know it then we are not going to achieve it, who is from RailTel over here? Nobody from RailTel in a conference on mobility? December 2018! एक साल का आप अगर फरक ऐसे कर दोगे तो मेरा तो ब्लड प्रेशर ही उतना बढ़ जाएगा.

And all of these are doable. I never set a target, which is impractical or not doable. We always set it in consultation with all of you, but I think the important thing is we will have to look at outcomes being achieved in defined time frame, otherwise calling an Uber representative or calling somebody from… I saw all the list of speakers, it’s a very interesting lot of people who have put together. We are investing their valuable time and effort to come here, I don’t think Uber or Make My Trip or Bharti Airtel would be.. people at these levels would be so free that they will be willing to come every time we call them, but I think some of them came earlier in our conferences. I find some of them have agreed to come and spend time with you today and they are all senior people, CEOs and business heads and director level people, scientist level people.

Now, I think if we are going to talk to them then we better learn from them and this engagement with the public-private partnership type of engagements are certainly going to help us in the railways. We are very often we get cocooned in our own system, in our own working, we have done something worth 30-35 years in a particular fashion, change is always difficult, while it’s inevitable, but sometimes quite difficult to absorb. And if I think our team at the top is committed to that change, getting the youngsters in the railways to absorb that change will not be difficult; it’s always the top which is more difficult when it comes to absorbing something different from how we have done it all our life.

And I think I would urge all of you to take each of the issues that Raja ji or Harmeen or Ramit or Nandini, Mr. Kalyan Raman, Padmini ji, Mr. Pandu Ranga, Julian and all the other speakers. Each of the issues that come up, I think instead of just maybe speeches, I hope you are having some interactions also, keep it more interactive so we can actually share our issues. The railway people here can give them their concerns or difficulties and let’s have a more engaging conversation. If that is not possible today, have it in other sessions where you could actually put in a team of four or five young officers with each of these speakers to spend a couple of hours or few hours and have an engaging session, what their ideas are and what we believe are our difficulties. And I am sure we will find a way forward to move the needle and move the needle fast, because at least I don’t think we have the luxury of time on our hand.

The Railways is one of the most important organisations when it comes to mobility in this country, it’s certainly the largest, and to my mind, while some phenomenal work has happened. I was seeing the new Paperless Unreserved Ticketing numbers, they had moved up from 195 in 2014-15 to 67,000 last year. Of course, I don’t know whether any media will report that this is a 35,000% increase, they will do that leave it only for all the political slugfest that goes on where they have to create sensation and the political world these type of percentages are often thrown by the media. But I don’t think it will be of great interest to them that the number of tickets being issued, which are paperless has moved up in this dimension over a period of three years.

I am sure this year we will do even better and we will be looking at expanding this multi-fold, particularly, with the decision we have taken that every ticket examiner, just like every catering service provider, all of them is expected to have a hand-held POS machine now so that we issue the ticket, we issue the extra charges, we issue the bill for whatever goods are sold to our customers and consumers. And I think this kind of rapid scale-up of technology is what the nation expects out of us and that’s where we can take the help of the distinguished participants from the private sector in helping us making it simple and easy, let’s not complicate it and that’s particularly for you Mr. Nigam, CRIS should try to uncomplicate things, not complicate things.

I find in every one of your projects you are looking at reinventing the way. I don’t think that makes a lot of sense to me. I would personally urge you to see what is available in the market place and whether we can customise it to our use and quickly put it into, deploy it in the railways. And I had asked Ms. Bassi, I hope you are working on that the working of the all the projects of CRIS to see what we can do faster, where we can use technologies which are available with various people and customise it and bring it into the railway much faster than the times that we are taking right now.

But that’s the kind of advantage a seminar like this should give to the railways and I have not invested an hour to come here only to give a speech or to tick the box. My effort is that you all will use, leverage this kind of engagements and see what can be done even better more efficiently, faster certainly and can we revolutionise the passenger and our customer experience, both on the freight and the travel side, and there are so many things that are possible.

I was with the Honourable Prime Minister in a meeting of the National Hindi Committee, I’m sorry I got a little late that meeting went on a little longer than we had anticipated. Now the Honourable Prime Minister in his concluding remarks made a very simple suggestion, which he has given to the Ministry of External Affairs and they’re working on it. Maybe you can collaborate with them and see how we can either dovetail our processes or we can work parallely and MEA and Railways together can come out with this quickly.

But I will tell you how the Prime Minister’s mind is innovative in his thinking. We have a lot of tourists coming into India and I am sure our tourists use the railways also, they use the IRCTC website also, first of all we must look at some new name for IRCTC, something more catchy and easy, otherwise, I also make a mistake very often while pronouncing or giving out the initials of IRCTC. I hope I am doing it right, right now. But we could look at a simpler name and something which is more catchy that’s your job Mr. Pillai and I have been saying this at least for the last 7-8 months, nobody has come forward with an idea, but that’s a lesser important issue.

Now, the Prime Minister said that when the tourist comes in, let’s say there is a tourist from France. He may not even know English and he is travelling in Coimbatore or Madurai and looking up temples there, he goes to a smaller village or a smaller town and he suddenly feels uneasy and he needs a doctor or he needs a hospital or assistance of any other sort. I am sure the audience is wise enough to understand what we would face if we were in let’s say Greece and not able to converse with the local language.

Now suppose we could drop a hundred very simple typical issues: I need a taxi, I need to find a hotel, I need to make a reservation on a train, I have lost my purse where is the nearest police station, I need a medical store, we can work out and MEA is probably doing that, we could engage with them.

If a hundred such simple issues that could concern a passenger, now this may not directly relate to the subject on hand, but I think that’s where technology and mobility can interplay with each other and help the experience of passengers. Now if we could do those hundred small such small questions or support that a person may require in different languages and convert it to different Indian languages – English, French, Spanish, whatever else, and move it to maybe the 20-22 languages to begin with, our official languages English, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Bengali etc, etc, Assamese. Whichever part of the country the person is if he is logged onto the Internet there, the net will itself tell the system which is the local language, right? And the person has to only feed in his when he logs on to our IRCTC website or the MEA website, which they’re probably going to propose. With his name or passport it will also tell which is his local language or there can be an option that’s all minor details.

And then look at the Prime Minister’s mind how the clarity with which he thinks. It will be difficult for the person to pronounce the Tamil or the Malayalam or the Telugu, so he said you could actually have a recording of what ‘I need to go to the hospital’ and if in Hindi it has to be translated for some village in U.P or Bihar ‘मुझे नज़दीक का अस्पताल में जाना है’ and do that recording and there is an audio play there which he presses and he lets the villager listen to the audio. And then, I am sure with sign language the villager or he may actually given the courtesies that normally Indian people have, he may actually accompany him and take him to the nearest hospital.

Very simple thing, Garish ji. But think of the enormous potential in terms of encouraging tourism and encouraging tourists’ satisfaction this small thing can provide. I don’t know whether there is any patent to this because otherwise Uber will start working on it and will have it ready in three days probably. And that is the kind of speed of action that we need to do in the railways. Seed an idea, deliberate on it, you can take 2-3 days to deliberate and fine tune it, you may find some ideas you don’t like you can trash it, but let the youngsters in our teams engage with new ideas and I am sure we will get some game changing results, which will truly help make the passenger experience and our freight customer experience much-much better, much-much sustainably satisfying, not a one off a freight.

And in that there are so many new transformations that the railways is working on, they are related to the tracks, they’re related to safety, they are related to signalling, they are related to catering, punctuality, modernising our inspection processes, which will make them more efficient, much more clinically sound using data mining with the score of data that we are collecting. I think I don’t know any other department, which could be collecting as much data as the Indian Railways does, but how efficiently and effectively we use that, how well that data is actually calibrated and converted into action agendas is the defining success story that we are looking for. And that to my mind is possible given the high quality team that we have in the railways, given the commitment that each one of you have, only thing is our mindset will have to accept and absorb change.

In fact, George Bernard Shaw had said, ‘progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change, those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything, they cannot progress in life.’ And to my mind, this is an organisation, which is willing to accept change, willing to absorb change. We are not scared of failure. I think failure is only a stepping stone to success. We will have difficulties along the way. I am sure we will face challenges, many times we may not we may not be able to understand issues, some of them are quite alien to our typical way of working in the railways. But today the youth of India have such tremendous ability that if we leverage their abilities, if we leverage their enthusiasm, the more we get talking to people from this technology world, I think we can just change the face of rail travel in India.

As I often say, it’s time we got the charm back to the Indian Railways, and to my mind, technology can be that one defining contribution that will help Indian Railways change both the direction and the face of the Railways. जिसको हिन्दी में कहते हैं “इसकी दशा भी बदल सकती है, इसकी दिशा भी बदल सकती है” और अगर हम सब संयुक्त प्रयास करते हैं और प्राइवेट सेक्टर के साथ, बिज़नेस के साथ, academia के साथ, technology experts के साथ देश में, विदेश में सब को जोड़ते हैं हमारे इस नए अभियान में तो मुझे पूरा विश्वास है कि भारतीय रेल का सफ़र और भारतीय रेल की सुविधाओं में ऐतिहासिक बदलाव लाने में हम सफल हो सकते हैं।

बहुत-बहुत शुभकामनाएं।