Thank you Raj, ladies and gentlemen, actually I was supposed to do the valedictory but as Dharmendraji said we have the cabinet meeting at 3 o’clock so I won’t be able to join you, my apologies for that. But I have actually encroached upon his time and I thank him very much for accommodating me in his section. In one way, if one was to describe the work that Dharmendraji has done and if you recall this sector was going through a lot of difficulties in 2014, lot of uncertainty, lot of questions were being raised in the petroleum and particularly natural gas sector. But he did not fear any difficulties. He was not deterred by the challenges. His approach was, I don’t need easy, I just need possible.

And I think what Dharmendraji did over the last 3 years was take those possibilities, expand on those possibilities, and I think what has been achieved in the petroleum sector, as was rightly pointed out by Raj, this huge impact of Ujala, this Ujjwala scheme has actually reached already 2 crore, expected to go up to 5 crore BPL homes, those who could otherwise never afford LPG cylinders. And the ambitious target to make India 100% gas-based cooking economy will truly transform the lives of millions of poor in the country. And I must congratulate him for a number of, host of initiatives, reigniting the gas exploration business through help, getting back the animal instincts in a sector which people had almost given up hope on must have been quite a challenge. His negotiating skills with international suppliers of gas have particularly benefited the country hugely.

I don’t know how many people are aware that we are saving nearly $2 billion a year only because of the renegotiation of gas prices, going beyond what was contracted by earlier governments has helped the country save nearly $2 billion a year, which is why we are able to make sure that gas reaches the poor of the country in an affordable way. My compliments to you, Dharmendraji.

When I was invited for this conference, I was told this forum is going to discuss the future of availability and, in some sense, can the need of the nation meet the availability in the nation. And that is something which both Dharmendraji and I have been focusing on. In some sense, it’s very hard to believe that barely 200 years ago, our main source of energy was wood. Who had imagined that so much change will happen in a short span of time? Now we have, of course, a wealth of energy sources to choose from. There is growing sources, be it oil and petroleum products, be it natural gas, be it electricity, as he rightly said, nuclear energy, and in the days to come renewable energy is taking centre stage – solar, wind, biomass being converted to energy. But if one was to look at India’s energy future, there are five global trends that are going to shape India’s energy future. One is clearly the population growth. One can imagine a 9 billion plus population by 2050, which means expanded need. And as the world is becoming more and more prosperous, obviously, it also means expanded desire and greed in some sense.

So one will have to plan for nearly 9 billion plus population and what stress that will create on the available planetary resources. The other, of course, is the impact of climate change. The concerns that global greenhouse gases, gas emissions, has on the very existence of mankind. And, therefore, the Paris Agreement has great importance for all our planning of India’s energy future. Technological innovations is the third global trend, so many things are happening, I mean, the most recent of those would be probably wireless transmission of electricity is being explored. And, by the way, once we have wireless transmission of electricity, we could actually even imagine what a Japanese researcher is talking about, that space has 24 hours sunlight. It is only on earth that we have sunlight moving from time zone to time zone. But in space, there is 24 hour sunlight. Can you just let your mind wander and imagine technological innovations overtaking us, and solar energy being produced in space giving round the clock energy and being transmitted through wireless transmission into the earth can actually change the very way the world works.

Now, all of these things are realms of possibilities which the world is working on, experts and scientists are delving, letting their mind wander into newer technological innovations and that is certainly going to shape the future of energy. Of course, as nations progress, as economies do better, particularly, as India moves up the development curve, I am sure higher standards of living will also impact global trends on the future of energy. And, clearly, the higher GDP in India too is going to become the determinant of more need for energy leading to much higher energy consumption being the fifth global trend, being witnessed worldwide, particularly, in the less developed or underdeveloped countries, in India, in the far east, in Africa, possibly even South America.

Now these trends put together are impacting India’s energy triangle. On the one side of the triangle, the energy system must give access to safe and secure and reliable energy for the people of the country. The second part of the triangle deals with affordability which my colleague Dharmendraji talked about. And the third side of the triangle is sustainability, making sure that the environmental impact is carefully considered and the concerns of environment are addressed when we address the future of energy in this country. Towards that end, if one was to see our own plans and that’s a plan where both these Ministries dovetail with each other – the focus to expand the use of natural gas in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry, the focus to expand the renewable energy consumption of electricity in the Power and Renewable Energy Ministry – both dovetail into a larger agenda to leave behind for the next generation a better planet than the one we have inherited.

In fact, the Sustainable Development Goals talk about five ‘P’s when it talks about the world’s energy needs – People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership. And in some sense, these 5 ‘P’s could also very well be the hallmark of the Modi government. In every respect, it’s a people-first government. A government that works to ensure availability of affordable, adequate, round the clock, uninterrupted, quality energy sources for the people of India, be it for cooking needs, be it for vehicular needs, be it for electricity in the homes, every form of energy that helps power the economy, it’s always a people-first approach.

Of course, as I said, we are giving a big thrust to natural gas. We are also giving a big thrust to renewable energy. Our target on solar alone has been expanded 5-fold from the one that was set some 5 years ago. So our National Solar Mission instead of 20,000 MW by 2022, today, is planning for a 100,000 MW by 2022. So if you look at it in perspective, what was 2,500 MW in 2014 is sought to be expanded to a 100,000 MW – 40 times in a span of 7 years. Similarly, we are giving a big boost to the hydro sector, wind energy is being given a thrust. In fact, last year has been a record of sorts, we have added about 5,400 MW of wind energy, which is the highest ever in India’s history. We have added about 5,600 MW of solar power, which is also a record of sorts. In fact, the growth in the last 3 years, cumulative growth, in solar power installed capacity is 370%. Now I would grant that the base was low, but it’s unless you plan big, unless you are willing to be bold in your target setting as well as in your plans and your ambitions, you will never be able to make a game changing impact to the planet.

And, therefore, I am very confident that under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, India will clearly demonstrate that sustainability is something that India is very passionate about, that Indians are very passionate about. For us, the environment is not a matter of what is decided in Paris or what another leader in another large country decides one way or the other. For Mr Modi personally, for his government and for the people of India, concerns about the environment are an article of faith. It’s something we are very passionate about. It’s something we deeply believe in, and it’s something we will do irrespective of what the global trends are.

In fact, I often get very amazed when I see that India has become such an import dependent economy, particularly, in a thing like coal where we had such abundant reserves, in natural gas where there were opportunities but, unfortunately, got into the quagmire of bad politics and bad economics for over a decade. It’s only now that we are seeing the reigniting of the excitement to invest in India. We have had record FDI flowing in in the last 3 years. And I am sure, this mindset of negativity, this mindset where we could never imagine that the country will be surplus in coal, surplus in power, it will translate to other sectors in the economy. In fact, it can be very infectious, once you set your ambitions high and you work towards very challenging and daunting goals, it can actually be very infectious. It can excite the people of the country towards more and more aspiration and efforts towards meeting those aspirations.

I am delighted that we have moved from a situation of no coal to more coal, and now are targeting better coal. I am glad that we are moving to a situation where transmission capacity in the country has grown by nearly 33% in barely 3 years. So what the country did in years and years up to 2014, we have been able to add about 26% transmission lines and about 36% transmission capacity in barely 3 years. Of course, the installed capacity for power also has grown by about 25-26% in three years. Now, put together, all of this is helping the energy security of the country, is helping adequate amounts of energy being available round the clock across the country. We are moving towards one nation, one grid, where we can move electricity seamlessly, wherever required, to ensure that prices remain affordable, energy needs of the people are met. And at no point of time do the people have to worry about their children not getting power to study at night, about a hospital running out of power or having a power outage where a patient’s life may be in danger, no risk about the safety and security of our people should power go off from the streetlights in a city.

And I think that’s the kind of India that we are working towards. As Raj said, we are looking to make sure that India is 24×7 power-secure across the country for all citizens of this country, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, economic status. The effort is to make sure the rich, the poor, the factory worker, the farm labourer, everybody, can enjoy the fruits of a basic amenity like power. We are working to make sure that that happens before India turns 75 in 2022. Of course, on a personal level I do believe we can do it much faster. Our effort is to do it much earlier. Because I think every single day, that that young student in the village does not get power to study is one day lost in the life of India, one day lost in the future of India.

I hope I will continue to receive the support of all of you. And I do hope the Modi government, Dharmendraji, I and all of us working under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Mod will succeed in our endeavours with the collective efforts and the collective confidence that this nation has that we can achieve supernatural results and we shall achieve the requirements that this country needs to meet the growing and very very genuine aspirations of the people of India.

Thank you very much.

Question and Answer

Q: Piyushji, you had mentioned, and very rightly, the priority must be to ensure 24/7 power supply to our people, 75 years after independence, we can do it earlier. You know, we would will be delighted and congratulate you for it. What are the difficulties you are facing while dealing with this thing, particularly, DISCOMs, what are the kind of innovative solutions are you trying to ensure that we do that?
A: Frankly, it’s not impossible. There will always be challenges in any activity. I think the DISCOMs are now recognizing that they will have to stand on their own feet. I am fairly confident by ’19 most of them and the last one or two by 2020 will be turning profits, and we will make sure that all the DISCOMs in this country will come into profits. If at all the one challenge that is there before the nation, it’s that politics may not overtake economics. But I am glad that people of India are now recognizing that good economics also makes for good politics and they are voting in governments that perform, that deliver results on the ground, and voting out governments which have failed to deliver. UP being a very very recent example, and a verdict like Uttar Pradesh very clearly demonstrates that you can’t survive a government which is full of allegations of corruption, which has discriminated between different sections of society and kept people all the time under fear and yet expect that the people will vote you back again, just because close to an election you try to make some nice slogans or talk about one highway that you created.

I think the people’s expectations are of holistic development and that’s what Prime Minister Modi is doing. You know, just the other day, couple of days back, there was a spontaneous requirement to list out what are the achievements of this government, what are the focus areas. We reached about 27-28 items just in a jiffy and then we said ok, stop, there is not enough time to speak anymore than that. And while in the car, we were discussing that, you know, oh, we have left out that, we have left out that. It’s amazing how Prime Minister Modi through his hard work and vision has been able to get action initiated on so many fronts, in some sense, reflecting what Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay had articulated more than 50 years ago that no human being can be happy, can be truly satisfied, no human being can really live a full life unless you look at his comprehensive and holistic development of every aspect of a person’s life. And I think energy which both of us are required to provide in abundant and affordable measure is just one cog in that larger wheel where he’s looking for good education, good healthcare, all of that. And I can assure you that there are no difficulties in that. It’s all in the mind, in the action there is no great difficulty.

Q: Piyushji, the fact that President Trump has come and America seems to be turning its back on the Paris Climate Change Agreement. How much does that affect India’s plans and, particularly, you had mentioned we are going to 100 GW, we are expanding our solar capacity enormously. What does this do? Does this slow us down? And how does it affect the world approach towards climate change?
A: First of all, just that I am not looking at any messages, I was looking at the latest number. Just to share with you, that the focus on implementation and that is Prime Minister Modi’s style is so deep that today is the 12^th April, I have a figure here of how many households have got electricity. Today, and this must be a figure of the last 2-3 hours, say 9-10 if they started. Until now, and I was seeing the figure of today’s electrification, I will just share with you in a moment. As of this morning, the number of households which have received electricity was about 2,666, from today morning until whenever they last posted the electricity. So it’s a continuous monitoring how we can get electricity right down to the households. Earlier, it was just take it to the village and that’s the end of the chapter. But Prime Minister Modi does not get satisfied with just small targets. He wants to make sure the 4.61 crore homes which was 4.7 crore until last month, also get electricity very quickly in their homes.

Fortunately, we now have a very good government in Uttar Pradesh. Yogi Adityanathji, the honorable Chief Minister has had almost 11 conversations with me already on a subject like electricity alone, 11 conversations, until yesterday it was 10, this morning was the 11^th. And he is so focused how can we get every home electricity, so I just thought I will share with you because I was looking at the latest figure just now.

As regards President Trump, as I said earlier, we are committed to our climate goals. We are committed to make India a decent and good place to live in and we will be a responsible global citizen, despite the fact that we are not responsible for that mess up there. India has contributed only 3% of the global emissions so far, despite supporting 17% of the world population. But Prime Minister Modi has not shied away from being a part of the global effort for a better future for the world. We also understand that our own people also cannot suffer from pollution beyond a point. For example, all of us in Delhi know, that when the rice husk is burnt in Punjab and Haryana, Western UP, the impact that Delhi has between the months of October and December. Now all of these things are challenges which we are working with the state governments to address. We are trying to find alternate methods to reduce the pollution levels.

Very often, that pollution is blamed for the wrong reasons. After all, if the reason was vehicular traffic or the power plants we should have had it round the year. But that particular period is a bad period. But apart from that, we are also working to see how we can encourage electric vehicles. He has just introduced BS-4 Standards for all vehicles. We are looking at supercritical and ultra-supercritical power plants. So we are working on different ways to bring down environment pollution in the country irrespective of what other countries do, India will save and protect the environment.

Q: One in terms of the electricity prices that is there in UP I am told is also waiving off some of the prices that is there to supply it across. How does this begin to impact the economics of generation and your DISCOMs going to the same vicious cycle of it?
A: I think I am very clear about it. The poor and the farmers are sections of society which deserve to get cheaper, lower cost power. I don’t see any big stress. If you look at the average price of power purchase across the country, it’s still quite low. NTPC is under Rs 3 a unit, across the country. So it’s not as if the power cost per se is high, it’s more the AT&C losses, power theft. The new government is working to address these issues. We cannot pass on our inefficiency to the consumer, and a little bit of cross-subsidy with industry will help us solve that conundrum. I am sure we can both give affordable power supply and run our DISCOMs profitably if we run our system efficiently and effectively.

Ends.

Q: So Mr Goyal my first, you have come from a long cabinet meeting. What is the mood in the government, what is the overall mood in the government today, halfway or a little more than halfway to your term?

A: Well, I think there’s a lot of satisfaction at what has happened in the last 3 years. And I tell you, even we get amazed every time we see a presentation sharing one department or the other department’s outcomes so far. But at the same time, there is certainly a lot more to be done and there is always the way forward which takes centre stage of any discussion or presentation. So, today, for example, we were discussing about the huge impact the digital push has had to the, in this country in the last 3 years. Some of the statistics were mindboggling. I tell you even sitting in the government one doesn’t realize what all has happened. A statistic that comes to my mind is the laying of optic fiber cable, for example. So far, till 2014, some 300-400 kms of optic fiber had been laid, in the last 3 years, over a lakh of kilometers of optic fiber has been laid. And the thing just keeps going on and on every new statistic that we see.

Today also we saw the commitment we had made earlier in the budget about the government e-marketplace, what a beautiful site has been created, where all the procurement of government and government public sector undertakings, and also possibly the sale of whatever goods and services they do could move into a transparent electronic platform and save the nation thousands of crores. So there are huge amount of impactful things happening in the government. We discussed the GST, by the way, in a big way, the game changing impact that GST could have on each of us in our lives. So there is a lot that has happened and, to my mind, this 3-year period will go down as probably the most impactful period for the structural changes that this economy and country are going through.

But, I promise you, not a single moment is taken up trying to be boastful or trying to just draw satisfaction for what has happened. Every single moment is used to plan for the future, to plan for a better future. And I assure you the plans are huge, and we stand committed to making this country truly a superpower.

Q: Mr Goyal, what about UP? You made a comment today, I think today or yesterday, I have got the comment. You made a comment.

A: I do 4 to 5 public interactions in a day, so I must have made a lot of comments.

Q: Yeah, you always make comments Mr Goyal. And I keep noticing your comments. So you said, you have been issuing warnings to UP power officials. I am not misquoting you, last couple of days particularly. I thought since I am meeting you I should keep track of what you have been doing. Today, it was reported that you had hinted at a deep rot in the UP power sector and there’s a feeling there should be a white paper on it. Now I remember on numerous occasions you as Union Minister talking about the burden of inheriting a corrupt system. So can you share some more exclusive details with us this evening, how deep the rot ….

A: You know, when we came into government at the centre, also we had this feeling that the nation should know really what the situation on the ground is. And at that time also we had deliberated on whether we need to come out with a white paper on the state of the country, the state of the economy. But at that point of time, and I think very rightly so, it was felt that sometimes you should let the reality not get exposed too much, let it remain buried. Because, after all, we have an international audience, we have an international image, and the country had to overcome all of those burdens of the past.

Q: No, but has the image, the international audience is there now also, or has it changed after the UP elections?

A: I will explain. No, at the centre we thought that it is important that we take care of the problems rather than highlighting those problems and the nation needed that confidence that good things are happening. This time around when we are seeing what the state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh is, it’s very very disturbing. And in this situation, I am actually reflecting that it may be good to come out with a paper which highlights what the reality on the ground is more so, so that we have a benchmark to what we have to do. The people are conscious that we have, we know what had happened in the past and that we are determined to set it right. For example, I will be signing with the Uttar Pradesh honorable Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath day after tomorrow, on the 14^th, on the birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna, Babasaheb Ambedkarji, the Power For All 24/7 document. Now the entire country has joined the central government’s effort except Uttar Pradesh, 3 years of relentless pursuit, I could not convince the state government. And I used to always wonder why? Why don’t they want to serve their people? Why are they hesitating to join this Power For All document?

Now I understand it, because the last one month, as each issue has got flagged off and as each issue is getting unfurled, I am realizing that it’s not as if power has not reached millions of homes. There are millions of homes who are using katiya electricity; the power theft is rampant over there. And then when I had asked, why did it happen, it’s not as if all of them wanted to steal power. Despite their efforts to get a formal or an official connection, they were not given an official connection, they were encouraged to steal power. And I don’t know if you saw….

Q: I saw your comment on the 10^th April on Youtube and you said, ‘change your habits, change your expenses’ and you said I am saying this for linesmen, inspectors, quality checkers, contractors; anybody who has ….. problem with the new system should just resign and get out. You said that. That was a, I say that is a classic Piyush Goyal statement. You know, problem is after Mr Goyal has become a Minister, he’s become very cautious, he has become very diplomatic. Earlier, when he was BJP Spokesperson, he was little undiplomatic on my programmes. Nowadays, he’s undiplomatic only on Youtube. It was your comment right?

A: No, no I will tell you what happened.

Q: You got angry?

A: On the 11^th evening, 11^th March as the results came in, we approached the Uttar Pradesh officials and we said now atleast let’s start working on the Power For All document. And you will be happy to know, from 11^th evening itself, teams of the centre and the state had been working burning the midnight oil, finalizing the terms of the future, the engagement with the state. Now as they were working, I think last weekend, Saturday-Sunday, despite being a holiday, the entire team from UP was down here. Our office was working. I don’t know, some of them may be sitting here as I see some familiar faces. And they were all working in the office. The honorable Minister, Mr Shrikant Sharma, had come down from Lucknow and we were sitting in the Mines Ministry and discussing something. I said let’s go and encourage all the officials who are working on a holiday over the weekend. I promise you, we had gone to encourage them to do the job well and fast. But you know, sometimes I speak my mind and I got talking, and the encouragement turned towards also encouraging honesty in the team. And I think I said no wrong. I gave them an opportunity that it’s good that they have to turn a new leaf. The new government led by Yogi Adityanathji is going to be intolerant to corruption just like we have been at the centre.

And I assure you that we will be able to turn around that DISCOM, we will be able to make profits in that DISCOM, while giving affordable, 24/7 power to all the people of Uttar Pradesh within the existing system.

Q: Just to push the envelope Mr Piyush Goyal, at the end of the day you are a politician. Politicians are populists. When you are a populist, it has its challenges. And democracy has its challenges Mr Goyal, and populism is directly opposite to technology development. I can read out right now, right here, from the BJP manifesto for the Uttar Pradesh elections to give you an example of the populism, and I have only two questions to ask you. How long can free power lag down in new investments, is privatization the only way forward, that’s question number one.

A: Well, first of all, I don’t see anything wrong in being popular. After all, when I attacked corruption I think it only made me a little more popular amongst all the people sitting in this room. Everybody is very very disturbed about the levels of corruption in this country and everybody wants to be a part of the change. And, to my mind, serving the poor with low-cost services, serving the farmers who are, after all, giving us the delicious dinner that I think ELECRAMA has organized after this program, those people are having a raw deal over so many years. They are still, large number of farmers are small and marginal farmers, large number of them are dependent on the weather God for their subsistence. And in this situation, I don’t think anybody can grudge some services, some benefits being given to the poor, to the farmers of this country. The problem is not that electricity is not available or low-cost electricity is not available. Even today, NTPC, the government utility, gives power at an average cost of Rs 3 a unit across the country, some places more, some places less but the average is still only Rs 3.

A lot of it is because of bad management of the system. A lot of it is because the Chief Minister himself proudly said in a public programme during the elections, that देखिये हमारी सरकार कितनी अच्छी है, हमने तो बिजली चोरी करने वाले या tax चोरी करने वालों पे भी कभी कोई काम नहीं किया, कोई action नहीं लिया | Now that was their populist slogan during the election. While our government and our representatives are screaming from the rooftop that we will not spare anybody who is indulging in corruption.

Q: Was that because of populism or corruption? You know, one thing, there is never any populism…

A: Well, they thought corruption and populism go together hand in hand, because the katiyabaz also encourages populism. It probably saves a few rupees in the electricity bills, but people of India understand that until we have honest administration we cannot progress this country. The GST is going to be a big move which is going to be quite unsettling in the first few months, atleast to those who are so used to not declaring their sales, not declaring their business profits or not declaring their turnovers honestly. But in the long run, and I think the long run is not very long, it’s a reasonably in the near future we will see a lot of benefits coming out of it. This government has a belief and a strong belief that good economics makes for good politics. You see all our actions, whether it’s demonetization, whether it’s our efforts to bring more and more probity and honesty in our procurement of power, procurement of renewable energy, the giving out of natural resources like coal mines or other mines, the giving out of linkages of coal, the exploration and exploitation contracts – everything, we have made transparency as the hallmark of this government. And despite it not being very populist I think the people of India have liked it, and one after the other election results only go to encourage us to be more firm in our belief that honesty and good governance is what this country wants.

Q: Yeah, but Mr Goyal for good politics you need an opposition; you also need a good opposition. Where is the opposition? There is a genuine fear that the absence of an opposition is not good for the country?

A: It’s not good for any Republic also.

Q: I can’t say the opposition doesn’t come on the Republic, I hope they come on the Republic.

A: After all, when we look at any vibrant democracy, a good republic, you are looking at the bureaucracy, you are looking at the judiciary, you are looking at the political establishment, and you are looking at the media as the 4 pillars. Each one has an important role. Sadly, a lot of people have made obstructionism as the way of running politics or being in the opposition. After all, take a recent example. We decided that we will give teeth to the Backward Classes Commission, and it was decided that it will be a constitutional authority to help further the cause of upliftment of the backward classes. In the Lok Sabha, it was agreed and almost everybody supported it. And I don’t think anybody can have any objection to trying and help a socially marginalized section of society come up in life. But in the Rajya Sabha they chose to oppose it, and referred it to a select committee instead of demonstrating to the people that there is still concern amongst the opposition for the backward classes. They did the same thing with the Prevention of Corruption Act Amendment. They did the same thing with our effort to clean electoral politics by bringing amendments in the way political donations are given. While in the Lok Sabha it was passed, in the Rajya Sabha they chose to oppose it. Now I don’t understand why these double standards.

Q: So, then there are only two options Mr Goyal. Either you do away with the Rajya Sabha or you have simultaneous elections, I think it’s because your government is so irritated with what’s going on in the Rajya Sabha that you are talking of simultaneous elections in the first place. Common on Mr Goyal, it’s time, no Mr Goyal it is 9 o’clock, past 9, I have not done Newshour for 4 months. And, you know, I have been set up here with you, so you might as well Mr Goyal.

A: And for a change, you are allowing me to talk also.

Q: My bad habit. I will get over it, only for 3 weeks now Mr Goyal. I will come back to my usual self. I am out of practice, yeah. I am just out of practice. But tell me, obviously, you are irritated with what’s happening in the Rajya Sabha?

A: Not at all. I come from the Rajya Sabha, of course, I wouldn’t be even here today. The Rajya Sabha has a very very important role to play. And I think the framers of the constitution have designed it beautifully. The fact that the Rajya Sabha changes its composition once in two years is truly a good way to keep checks and balances in the system so that any party does not have a runaway situation at any point of time. So I at all would be the last fellow who would at all object to the Rajya Sabha. Simultaneous elections are good for the economy, because otherwise, governments are in perpetual election mode. So we just finished UP and we are getting into Gujarat.

Q: Just to update our audience about idea of the simultaneous election it means in India there will be one election every 5 years, all the states and the centre will go for one single election and there won’t be any election every 4 months.

A: So that politics doesn’t overtake good governance and economics. Otherwise, very often, (a) the model code of conduct comes in, (b) then the populist issues do come in, and states or centre are all the time in election mode. Look at the situation, you finish the central parliamentary election, soon thereafter you have Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana. Soon thereafter you have probably Delhi, then Bihar, then you come into Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, no before that we had Assam and a few other states. Before that we had the southern states. So it’s a perpetual election mode every 6 months. We have just finished Uttar Pradesh. We are having the Municipal Corporation in Delhi, after that we will have Gujarat and Himachal, soon after Karnataka, soon after Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh. So this nation spends money frequently, may not be good for the advertising revenue of the media maybe, simultaneous elections. But I think for the nation it will be good. We will have governments getting down to business for a proper term. And I am sure, the cost saving will run into thousands of crores.

Q: Mr Goyal, I can assure you the advertising revenue of news channels does not match the pockets of political parties.

Can I take a slop poll here about how many people support the idea of simultaneous elections? You support, India should have once, that’s almost what, 80% to 90% of the audience.

A: The others are tired of raising their hands.

Q: Well, I think, I personally think that after demonetization, simultaneous elections could be as dramatic an idea in India to change things. You know, I know you made …….. because we have election coverage every 4 months. But, beyond that if you ask, we are obsessed about party politics all the time, and we don’t give enough time to issues of governance. And the sole reason for this is every 4 months there’s an election and all political parties believe that the….. election is the most important. In fact, if you go to Bangaluru they don’t understand why the MCD elections in Delhi is being fought like World War II. You know, but that’s what it’s become.

A: I promise you Arnab, we are all missing you. Now, let’s get Republic up and above quickly. We really need to see you at 9 o’clock now.

Q: What are you going to watch Mr Goyal? You watch Republic? Or is Minister not allowed to do brand endorsements?

A: No, I wish I get time at 9 o’clock to watch the news. But I will watch the repeat telecast late night.

Q: Fantastic. Well, I have really enjoyed this conversation. I can go on and on and on. There’s a dinner time that’s approaching but I think it would be only fair that the Minister is here, there’s a wonderful audience here, if you would like to throw a couple of questions to the audience. Should we just poke the mike around a bit Mr Goyal? I think, I don’t want to hog the limelight.

A: I have always enjoyed coming to the programmes of ELECRAMA, they are doing some very good work for our industry. In fact, even the UP story, I would urge all of you and, by the way, I have already got a couple of whistleblower messages from amongst you about some things in UP and serious action is being taken on that also. For the matter, somebody also messaged me that we, in fact, complained to you and the guy got promoted. So I got psyched out, you know, I got the complaint about somebody, the investigation had started but he got promoted. Now in government, there are processes so I was psyched out. I immediately called the UP Minister. He said this must have happened through some process which was running for the last one year. But we are taking action, but we will have to go through a process of investigation and check it.

The big picture is that look, if we all want to be a part of the change, then you will have to be the change first, you will have to make up your mind that you will not give a bribe or corrupt the system at any point of time. And I would like to appeal to all of you and through you to the entire power sector supplier industry, please do not encourage anybody at all by giving them bribes. And wherever you are aware of situation where people have been indulging in corrupt practices or, traditionally, there’s been corruption please share it with us, so that we can take action. You know how we did in the solar power procurement, in the wind power procurement now we started. How we procured LED bulbs. How we set up guidelines to encourage reverse bidding or e-procurement for all our goods. And we have been able to bring down prices drastically, and bring honesty into the system.

I want to appeal to all of you, please become whistleblowers wherever you can, but genuinely, now if you lose a contract don’t try to fix the officer by becoming a complainant.

Q: I think that’s as straight as can be. And I am not for flattering, but I think, you know, Mr Goyal is extremely involved, hard working, energetic and passionate Minister. If there would be many many more Ministers like him I am sure, each sector would sparkle. I think you have done a terrific job. I don’t flatter people.

A: I don’t know something was wrong to me.

Q: But I like to see you involved in your sector, and I think these sectors merged to ……………….. We will take a couple of questions Mr Goyal. I agree with you, we compliment he did that Youtube Video has gone so viral. I have got 100 people forward it to me and said please convey our thanks to the Minister for being so bold enough. The public definitely liked it it’s a populist move but it’s a genuine move. So, from the industry side, thank you for having a continuous dialogue with us. I have two things to say sir, one is your involvement in the DISCOM now in UP. I think that’s ……… if it turnaround UP it gives a very strong message around the country because if UP can be turned around from where it is today, then we have won the game. The UDAY is really a new uday. On the renewable side sir, on rooftop I have a suggestion. You know, IIT Bombay did a study recently that all roofs in Bombay have rooftop solar will generate 1750 MW of power. And your theme of connecting that to e-mobility, that will take out the day time peaks on all the large cities. So if you do these kind of studies with a real ground level things are done and then industry gets engaged with it so it will be a big thing and we will support. Other thing we will expect is with DISCOMs now that you are getting involved, if challenge has come from DISCOM to the industry because from our side we have utility outreach programme, we are going out and talking to sales. But from your side, it’s also ………………… we have these five objectives from the government side, we from industry side will be very happy to take that up.

A: Thank you, they are good suggestions but since you have asked me, I have three or four quick ways which can really help me serve you and the people of India better. I still have to see that $15 smart meter. I am still waiting for that to happen. Uttar Pradesh has decided to put a smart meter in every home. So you now have a straight visible business of about 20-22 crore people, so about 40 million smart meters required in Uttar Pradesh alone in the entire state. And, by the way, you will be amazed how it used to work. Now I think that’s why I thought of white paper. While on the one hand, there were nearly 6 or 7 or possibly 8 million homes which have electricity but an illegal connection. There are 6.3 million people, so these don’t obviously have a meter because they have an illegal connection. Amongst the legal connections, there are 6.3 million homes who don’t have a meter, they have an unmetered connection.

So Arnab since you asked for what I meant by what are the problems or challenges. Now these 6.3 million homes are all I am told showing a half kilowatt or 1 kilowatt power connection, now within that I don’t know how many kilowatts they are using, God alone knows. But since it’s unmetered, they are trying to pass on the theft into the consumption of these unmetered connections. So the losses which are declared at some 30 odd percent are probably actually 50 percent in that state because the loss is being hidden within the unmetered connections. So I found out that these homes, these unmetered homes are consuming about 5 units at an average per day. Now all of you are from the electrical industry. A poor person’s home who is claiming that he only has 1 kilowatt, with his, howsoever much he may run his light bulbs or fan or refrigerator can’t consume 5 units every day, we all know that.

Now all of that is leading to large amount of losses, having said that, now if I try to get them to meter these 6.3 million homes and suddenly give them a bill which is going to be many fold, it’s not going to work also. So we will have to balance actual honesty into the system yet not cause too much of a stress on the pocket of the poor person. That delicate balance is where good economics and good politics have to merge and yet serve the people well.

Q: Sir, one suggestion, since UP power situation is in a mode of restarting, why not you arrange a joint meeting with the UP State Electricity Board and with the ……. I will be happy to host it.

A: Excellent idea, I will do that right away. We would like to involve all of you in this story.

Q: Our request ….. Arnab your request this last time you came to us, creating awareness among general public against power theft, electricity worth about 100,000 crores is stolen every year across the country. This is data which can be …… If you create awareness, you know, it could be a huge benefit to all of us.
I agree with you sir.

Q:Since I have got the mike, I will take the precedent sir.

A : Some guys never stop talking.

Q: Sir, I only try to emulate you. And then, of course, I have got Arnab as my brother, you know, so if, he is somebody I emulate somebody’s who is like a brother so you can’t help me in that.

A: Dinner 12 बजे के बाद ही serve होगा मुझे लगता है?

Q: Sir, don’t worry, we will serve it as breakfast.

A : Champagne breakfast?

Q: Yes sir, sure. Sir, an area of concern for us is that, you know, MSME in India has virtually stagnated in terms of technology. And I know it’s an area of big concern for you. But how do we now get the startup concept into the MSMEs and how do you further the technology segment in the MSMEs, because they are not just the backbone of India but I think they are the backbone of the world economy now.

A: Very good point you have raised, in fact, that’s an area of concern amongst all of us. Today, at the end of the cabinet when we were just having tea, also one of the Ministers flagged off this issue with me that we will really have to reignite the animal spirits in the MSME sector. I agree with you that over the last few years, possibly, the sector has had a lot of challenges of technological upgradation, maybe, adequate capitalization, ability to expand or serve at larger scales which are now becoming the order of the day. So it’s a point that I would love to actually hear from some of you how we can help that sector, how we can encourage that sector to prosper even more. We are concerned because that is the largest exporter in the country. That sector creates the maximum job opportunities or working opportunities, and to my mind, the future of India, the new India that we talk of, the India of possibilities, the India of opportunities can only be driven through the MSME sector. So it’s a good question, I am sure all of you will have some ideas on that and we will be happy to engage and work together to help the MSME sector. We do have price preference for the smaller manufacturers. We do have, you know, no earnest money deposit. We have lesser qualification criteria, all of that is standard stuff. Can we think of something out of the box to support the MSMEs, I am happy to hear from you.

Q: I will wrap it up with this. We opened it up for questions which was not planned. But I want to thank you Piyush Goyal for fascinating conversation, good to see you once again. And congratulations for all the good work that he is doing. Thank you Piyush, thank you.

A: Thank you Arnab and all the very best for the Republic. May the flag fly high.

 

 

 

 

The summer of 2017 may not prove as uncomfortable for electricity consumers across India as the season in previous years, thanks to surplus power generation capacity, adequate coal stocks and improved purchasing ability of distribution companies.

Barring pockets in certain states such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir which lack inter-state transmission connectivity, consumers in most other regions are likely to have sufficient electricity access.

Generators are looking forward to better utilisation of power plants, resulting in better revenues, as the Meteorological Department has predicted a warmer summer this year. Power prices in the spot market touched Rs 3 per unit in the last week of March, following a sudden spurt in temperatures due to heat wave conditions in most parts of the country.
The prices have now been settled at about Rs 2.85 per unit with increased supply from underutilised projects, but rates for southern states have risen to Rs 3.65 per unit.

A senior official in the Central Electricity Authority said states such as Bihar, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Punjab have made affordable short-term power arrangements for the summer season at an average tariff of Rs 3.5 per unit.

Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu are among the states that often buy electricity from power exchanges.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/58100185.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Thank you very much ma’m, Pujari sahab, Shalini ji, Mr AK Verma, Mr Verma from CEA, Mr Gupta, Ritu Maheshwari, all the distinguished ladies and gentlemen who have assembled here today, friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen. Mr Pujari was just now mentioning about various schemes and apps from this venue. I hope you are not being sarcastic that कुछ ज्यादा ही हो रहा है .

But I really feel happy that on this public sector day, our colleagues from a public sector company have been able to come up with world-class interventions which can really help India’s consumers interface with the electricity distribution system, and truly ensure what Mahatma Gandhi had once said, the customer is king, and end of the day, we have to satisfy every customer, can actually happen within the government sphere, within the workings of the public sector undertakings. And I was reminded of a quote from Keith Ferrazzi, an American author, ‘Power today comes from sharing information, not withholding it.’

And I am really delighted that today’s launch of Urja Mitra, in some sense, shares information with the consumer, honest information, empowers the consumer to be more demanding to demand better service, empower him with information so that he can plan his life better. And we are preparing the nation to truly get 24/7 power, affordable power, quality power, uninterrupted power, adequate power and I would like to compliment REC, all the colleagues from the company, which has truly made this happen with a lot of perseverance and a lot of hard work. Rituji, you and I am sure a lot of your colleagues here, who must have all burnt the midnight oil to make this happen, deserve the highest accolades and my compliments to all of you.

In fact, you will be happy to know only on Sunday, day before yesterday; I met with the honorable Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanathji. And he did not know that we are launching Urja Mitra or that we have this programme today at all. In fact, how would he know because Uttar Pradesh wasn’t even willing to share information before he came in. So there is no question of knowing what are the new initiatives. But in his own way, and I am sharing this with you because it’s very interesting. He said, Piyushji, जब हम छोटे थे तब कोई न कोई पत्र आता था हमारे घर में कि आपके घर में इस समय से इस समय बिजली नहीं आएगी, या पोस्ट कार्ड आता था या कोई लाइन्स मैन आके सूचना देके जाता था मुहल्ले में कि इस समय से इस समय बिजली नहीं आएगी | क्या ऐसी कुछ व्यवस्था अभी हम बना सकते हैं क्या कि लोगों को जानकारी पहले से मिल जाए, बिजली कब आएगी, कब जायेगी, कब मिलेगी, कब नहीं रहेगी जिससे व्यक्ति अपने जीवन को उसके हिसाब से मैनेज कर सके, प्लान कर सके जबतक कि हम चौबीस घंटे बिजली नहीं दे पाते |

And I knew about this programme today so I shared with him. I said we have about 8 crore consumers already logged on to a new app which I will be launching shortly, and I urged him that Uttar Pradesh should also join in this new initiative so that all the consumers of Uttar Pradesh also can be monitored through this app. They can all feed in the mobile number, Aadhar number and consumer supply number, just like Andhra Pradesh has done for over 1.25 crore consumers so that all the people of Uttar Pradesh also can be benefitted from this very very delightful experience that is being proposed by the government of India. I must also thank Mr Pujari and his team for having agreed to provide 100% funding through a grant for metering of all the rural feeders in the country. So as Ritu just mentioned, out of 1,05,000 rural and agricultural feeders, about 30,000 are already metered and connected to the system.

Of course, I was told that only 8000 of them are giving the data into the system. In the past, when meters were set up, modems were either not set up or if they were set up they had not being working for so many years. So despite having a feeder meter, we are unable to capture that data. एक तरीके से यह विडम्बना है | I fail to understand how systems have operated in the past. So you spend money on a feeder but if you are not going to use the data that it generates, it’s a complete loss of public money. And we have made it a point that the balance 22,000 meters also will have modems which will start functioning, providing data into the feeders. As Ritu mentioned and as I have just launched this new scheme to provide 100% government grant from the Power System Development Fund for setting up feeder monitoring systems in the balance 75,000 meters which will obviously come with modems, which will communicate to the grid and which will also have an ONM for 5 years built in, so that we are not even dependent on the states to maintain these feeders and these modems.

So I am sure, as we complete this project by December? December, 2017 is the deadline that we have set for ourselves, it’s a very ambitious target. If the nation has come so far with 30,000 feeder meters, we want to add 75,000 in the next 8 months. But I think that’s what this government loves to take on. We love to take on challenges. We love to take on aggressive targets and are confident of achieving them, so that all the 1,05,000 feeders in the country start communicating with the system, providing us the data we can identify where the actual losses are taking place and, therefore, serve the consumers better.

In fact, the future of India lies in its villages. And unless the villages prosper, unless we can take a better quality of life into the village, जब तक गावों के ग्रामीण इलाकों में, गरीबों में, किसानों में पूरी तरीके से ऊर्जा की सुविधा नहीं पहुँचती है तब तक मैं समझता हूँ इस देश का विकसित होना असंभव है | और यह जो ज़िम्मेदारी प्रधानमंत्री श्री मोदी जी ने हम सबको दी है कि इस देश में 2022 के पहले हर घर को 24 घंटे बिजली मिले, हर खेत को पर्याप्त मात्रा में बिजली मिले, इस ज़िम्मेदारी को पूरा करने के लिए हम सब प्रतिबद्ध है, हम सब संकल्पित है | हम इसको पूरी तरीके से पूरा करेंगे, करके ही रहेंगे और शायद समय-सीमा के बहुत पहले ही करके देश को पूरी तरीके से ऊर्जा से लाभान्वित करेंगे |

I am delighted at the good work that Andhra Pradesh has done. They have been able to connect all their 1.25 crore consumers into the system. They have sent out over 2 crore SMSs already. I was just taking a review with Ajay and I find that between their two DISCOMs, one almost runs seamlessly 24/7 without any outages, in the other one they have a average of about 1 outage in a week, which also is barely 7-8 minutes in a day when translated on a daily basis. But I am sure they must be working towards addressing that also so that they can completely ensure adequate power supply in every farm and 24 hours power supply for industry, commerce, households.

And really, that’s the way the entire nation expects the power distribution system to work. UDAY has been very well received except for I think one state in the east, and Meghalaya is left? Nagaland is left, so 2 states left. We have 27 states on board. Nagaland we are already talking to. They will probably sign up for the operational efficiencies. I don’t know whether we have given up on the last state. Yeah, we can, but I don’t know whether there’s an interest to serve the people of that state with better efficiency or whether politics is going to prevail over good economics. I leave it for the wisdom of that state and its leadership to decide or at the earliest opportunity for the people of that state to decide, whether they want to continue in this system of not progress but taking their state back or they want to look for a better set of people to run their state or serve their state.

I am also delighted that we are looking at Uttar Pradesh very seriously. Uttar Pradesh is the last state which had not signed Power For All – 24/7. I am glad that my officials and the officials of Uttar Pradesh started working on it on the election counting day itself. By the evening, on 11^th evening, the whole system had got activated. See the power of good governance and the power of a change that the same officials who until 10^th March were unable to even enter into that agreement. And now it’s quite clear, that they were able to do it, but possibly, the political masters were holding them back. But from 11^th evening itself, the teams have been working. I think two weeks back or last Saturday-Sunday they were working round the clock in the PFC office in Delhi. And I am delighted to share with all of you that on 14^th April, on the birth anniversary of Baba Sahed Ambedkarji , we shall be executing Power For All document with the last state in the country, Uttar Pradesh, in Lucknow.

And for any of you who are interested in participating in that programme, I would urge you to travel to Lucknow on the 14^th, where Maharajji, the honorable Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathji, somebody who has from the word ‘go’ been on the move to serve his people, been actively working in a variety of areas to bring down the rot in the system that had set in over the last 15 years, bring back good governance to the state of Uttar Pradesh, bring in development and progress for the people of Uttar Pradesh. And from whatever I have seen in the last 15-20 days, I have no doubt in my mind that we will be able to make Uttar Pradesh a model state with the joint efforts both of the centre and the state even in the area of electricity, in the area of power supply.

Some of the statistics that have come out in the course of the last two weeks as we have been working on the Power For All document are absolutely mindboggling and terrible. I can’t even share it with you. Maybe we should share it on the 14^th from Lucknow. But some of the figures and some of the facts that have come out only strengthen my feeling that we should come out with a white paper on the state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh so that the people know exactly the deep rot that had set in into that state and its working. And I would urge my officials to really work with the state and come out with the reality of what really prevailed in that state. Why did that state go down despite being rich with agriculture, rich with so much hard working people, so much wealth in that state. Unfortunately, we have not been able to develop that state.

I hope that not too many SMSs are required to be sent out from Urja Mitra. So we will have to make more effort to make sure the distribution companies work more efficiently so that the SMSs are of the last resort, they are kept to a minimum. As it is, I think most people in the room must be tired of receiving too many messages. But there is one saying, that I get 99 SMSs in a day, let the 100^th one atleast be more useful. And I am sure that, God forbid, if power has to be shut down anywhere and a message has to be sent to somebody, I hope it will help maybe save a life somewhere, help somebody plan his studies better, help a housewife plan her cooking or dinner schedule better.

And, therefore, I think this Urja Mitra app can really be life-changing and game-changing for millions of people in this country. Even a hospital can then plan their operations better if they know when exactly power will come or go. Of course, not to take away from the ultimate objective that we have to give 24/7 power for all.

In the meantime, I would urge all the states to join in this excellent initiative, to be a part of this effort so that anywhere in the country if there is a problem of power outage, the people know about it in advance. If there is a sudden outage, people know how long it will last, what was the cause of that? How it will not happen again? And, also this will help people call up the helpline no. 1912. We will have a common helpline all over India – 1912 – with which the state DISCOMs will be connected. If anybody was to make a call with his mobile number if it is seeded along with Aadhar and his consumer connection number on the Urja Mitra App, we will quickly be able to take his compliant right down to the feeder which serves any consumer in the country. That’s the objective.

At a later stage we are also going to look at geo-tagging on this app so that consumers will know exactly what is happening on his feeder, and the feeder will know exactly from where the consumer is facing any difficulty. It’s truly a customer-focused approach that Urja Mitra is trying to propagate. One more app, but I am sure one more app that will serve the people of India, serve all of us towards a better life. I am sure the Prime Minister’s vision to take power for all which he had started in Gujarat as the Chief Minister and very rapidly turned around the situation of power sector in Gujarat, will be translated across the country from Jotirgaon, which started in Gujarat to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana nationally. The journey towards power for all is progressing at a rapid pace. I wish all of you the very best in this journey.

Thank you very much for being with us today.