Around for generations I think in history, and with successful implementation of GST, in which I think all of us have a stake, can become the turning point in the Indian economy where we expand our markets, expand our horizon, expand the possibilities of a better future for millions and millions of Indians. In that sense, I would like to congratulate each and every one of you for the new law that we have voted actually. It’s been a law passed by consensus, states across the country, across political affiliations have all come together to make this happen. And, in that sense, that’s the hallmark of good governance that while politics is there, you have politics during elections. Post-elections, the strength of Indian democracy comes from the fact that we can all get together, work together to make things happen, and today was one more success story in this journey where a broad consensus could be made amongst different political ideologies, different political ways of thinking, working, to come to a policy which I believe we are all in agreement that it is good for the country.

I am delighted that Network18 has chosen to organize the Global Natural Resources Conclave, more so because the natural resources of a country define its future. Very often when we talk about GDP, when we talk about what constitutes national wealth, we fail to realize the important role that minerals have while calculating national wealth, national prosperity. In some sense, whatever is below the ground in terms of the mineral wealth or for that matter even the soil on which agricultural produce is grown, the produce that comes on the ground, it could be as simple as forest cover in a country, because agricultural wealth is truly value added product. Human labour is another product that adds to national wealth. At one earlier interaction, somebody had corrected me that the animal wealth of the country also creates wealth, and it’s only when you put all of them together working in tandem, working to create value to bring prosperity to the people engaged in these various activities that a country can prosper.

India is blessed. We have a large number of minerals in the country. I believe at last count, we have mining activity in about 88 minerals totaling to about an output of $40 billion without considering petroleum products. Now, on the one hand, this may sound like a good figure, it may sound like a significant output. But to my mind, it’s certainly not the true potential of India. There’s a lot more we can do. There’s huge opportunity out there. And if one looks at the 7 decades of India’s independence, I think there have been a lot of lost opportunities when it came to using the natural resources that this country has been blessed with to its full effect.

Since I also hold the charge of Coal, and today I am facing the stress of not being able to sell the amount of coal that we are producing. As many of you may be aware we have actually regulated the output of coal, the production of coal in the last 12 months for lack of adequate avenues to consume that coal. And one of the principal causes of that is that in earlier years we never imagined that India could be a coal-surplus country. We had almost given up on our ability to mine the amount of coal that the country needs. In that process, over the last 10 or 15 years, we landed up setting up large amounts of thermal coal-based power plants which are designed to consume only imported coal; coal with much less fly ash, coal which doesn’t have the kind of impurities that our Indian coal has. And because of that, the country even today continues to import thermal coal on the one hand, and on the other hand we are stressed with large amounts of coal at the pithead lying in stock, waiting to be mined, but we are unable to mine it for lack of adequate market.

Fortunately, those days I hope are behind us when we would plan in that feeling of helplessness to depend on imported products. I have a piece of good news. Only about 10 days back, the Power Minister of Tamil Nadu met me. That’s a state which was planning to have a ultra-mega power project based on imported coal, for the last several years the process was on. And despite several interactions that I have had in the last 3 years, they were unwilling to compromise and, for whatever reasons they wanted to focus on imported coal. I am delighted that 10 days ago, the Minister has come and handed me a letter, saying that they would like to change the plans and would now like to set up that plant based on domestic coal, looking at the easy availability of coal and the large amounts of coal that we are domestically able to produce in the country today.

And the same goes, sector after sector when I assess the natural resources of this country. In fact, another very very ridiculous situation that I inherited, and I am told this has been going on for several years before this government came into power, was the situation where India produces alumina in fair measure, which could be a raw material for growing aluminium needs for this country. But we choose to export the raw material alumina rather than process it in the country, add value, add jobs, create wealth, create products, which can go to serve the people of India. And instead of that, we continue to depend on large amounts of imports both of alumina and aluminium products, and even more so, downstream aluminium products.

And, ladies and gentlemen, you will appreciate that a country which could produce alumina, instead of adding value is still dependent on imports, and the imports don’t stop just at alumina, they don’t stop just at primary aluminium, they go right up to the downstream finished products. So you are losing jobs at every end of the value chain, not only losing jobs in the primary production of aluminium but in the further processing. And, by the way, when you process aluminium into downstream products you actually create far more significant number of jobs, particularly, when a lot of that activity happens in the small scale and medium scale or smaller units across the country.

But I am at pain to try and make this system understand that it’s important to check this kind of wrong practices, support manufacturing domestically, encourage increased production of the alumina mineral, reduce aluminium in India, produce downstream products in India, be end-to-end self-reliant. Very often, the argument goes that it’s easier to import goods when they come from some countries and there are many countries which export their excess production to India at ridiculously low prices. Very often they subsidize and give export subsidies when value added products come to India. In fact, in aluminium, I don’t know how many of you are aware, a neighbouring country, which is one of the largest exporters of downstream products to India in aluminium, actually puts an export duty if primary aluminium was to be exported out of that country to stop that primary aluminium from getting exported, to encourage downstream manufacturing which means jobs for their people. But on the finished downstream products, they give a production subsidy, which actually makes the Indian market completely skewed. It encourages India to import end products, finished goods, rather than even importing the primary products. And then there is this argument made out often, but the people are benefiting from cheaper imported finished products rather than manufacturing it in-house. Maybe for economies of scale, maybe because this is their surplus capacity, they find it very economically viable or prudent to export it to other countries, even at throw away prices.

But I don’t know whether the people of India understand and realize the dangers, the lurking dangers in such a situation. The danger that we would not be able to create our own domestic industry, gradually, we would lose our competitive edge, first in the downstream or the finished product industry becoming more and more largely dependent on imports, at some stage later on even in the manufacturing of primary aluminium and be reduced to a raw material exporting country dependent on finished products on the rest of the world. And I don’t know if one realizes that once it is known to the world that India is totally dependent on somebody else for its needs then God knows what the price of that product could be tomorrow. Where is the assurance of this low value imports in future years once there is no competitive local industry in that product.

And, it’s very important and I am delighted that Network18 and CII have chosen to focus on this very important subject that while India wishes to be a part of the global network when it comes to exploration of mineral wealth, when it comes to freight rate, at the same time, we will have to realize that some amount of self-sufficiency and dependence on domestic sources is always good for the nation’s security in the future, for the nation’s own needs in the future and to keep the product pricing in check in the longer run. And all countries in the world do this. I remember when we put the Minimum Import Price on steel products, the United States within two days after that imposed a 270% import duty on cheap and indiscriminate imports of steel products in that country.
In fact, the time is ripe for India to aggressively go for more and more exploration of our natural wealth, our national resources. It’s time we invested heavily in the exploration activity. In fact, the figure that I got was that India only spends 0.4% of the world spending on exploration of minerals in India. I think that’s a very very dangerous situation. We are trying to change that. In fact, recently we have given out a 100 areas for exploration, some to the government companies; some are being bid out to private companies. The idea being that once we have a fair idea or a fair estimate of the natural wealth in those mines, we will have the ability to run a transparent auction process and give licenses to people to exploit that, to mine the mineral from these areas, and would have a fair idea what is the mineral wealth in each of these mining blocks so that that value determined out of a fair and transparent process – (a) ensures that there’s no discrimination, ensures that there’s no illegality, ensures that there is no corruption on the one hand, and, (b) the value that is received by state governments, mind you all of this value goes straight to the state government, helps the state governments run their programmes, particularly, their programmes for the welfare of the poor, the welfare of the deprived and marginalized sections of society, helps the state governments run programmes for a better future for the youth of our country, for the women of our country. And in that sense, probably, India is the first country which has separated exploration from exploitation of …….

There was a lot of criticism. There was a lot of resistance initially when we proposed this. I think gradually, the world is coming to terms and understanding the deep thinking that has gone behind this. In fact, we recently had some interactions with some African countries who were delighted at the prospect of what we have done where we separately give out a contract for exploration; pay the value as a contractor to the exploration company. After all, there is no rocket science in exploration. If at all there is a science or an art, or a combination of both, it is at best in the interpretation of the exploration results. And that we can leave to everybody, we can give out all the findings of exploration and let the people, the bidders for the mining licenses do their own inference, bid as per their own inference on what kind of value they can take out of that mine.

But in the process, we will be able to actually get the true value of this mineral, serve the people of India. And my party, the Bhartiya Janta Party, which is founded on the ideology of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, whose birth centenary we are celebrating this year, believes in what Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay had said more than 50 years ago that the nation’s natural resources or the wealth of the nation should first go to serve the person at the bottom of the pyramid. It is our duty that the national wealth is first used for the welfare of the poorest of the poor so that we can create a more inclusive society; create a society which works for a better future for 1.2 billion people, which gives everybody a chance for a brighter tomorrow. And, in that sense, our natural resource development in the days and years to come is going to be a very very important element of the economic development of the country.

A friend had once told me, that if India were to only focus on expanding the mineral wealth of this country and putting that into the service of the motherland, that itself could create millions of jobs, that itself could create that enabling framework which would help industrialization in the length and breadth of the country, that could add huge amount of jobs, particularly, in the eastern parts of India which have remained deprived, which have remained laggards in the development, economic growth of this country. And, as honorable Prime Minister often says, unless the eastern part of India progresses, keeps pace with the rest of the nation, the country cannot progress.

And I think we are blessed that states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, largely the eastern belt of India, is blessed with large amounts of natural resources. We are making a very very focused and concerted effort to get these resources off the ground. We will be looking to the support of all stakeholders in this sector in helping us expand our exploration activities much faster. In fact, you will be amazed that even the aerial mapping of our total land area has not been done so far. So we have, from the total 34 lakh sq. kms. or 3.4 million sq. kms of landmass of India, we have determined about 800,000 sq. kms. where there is an Obvious Geological Potential, the OGP areas, and have initiated the process. I think either today or tomorrow, the aerial mapping was going to start and over the next 2-2.5 years we hope to get the entire 800,000 sq. kms. of India’s Obvious Geological Potential areas mapped aerially to get a fair fix on the particular locations which need to be further explored. We are going to give out contracts for exploration. I would urge companies from around the world also to look at these contracts. You will get paid for whatever you spend on exploration and you will also have a potential upside if the mineral is found out of your efforts to explore that piece of land. There is a significant upside being offered along with these contracts. And then once we have the, I don’t know, G2, G3, whatever level of exploration in hand, we will put that data, all of that data in public domain and invite entrepreneurs and companies from India and across the world to be a part of this growth story of India.

I am sure the natural resource wealth of this country which we hope will go to serve the people of India has huge potential. At one point, I was estimating that the GDP of India comprises about 2.4% of mineral wealth. The effort is, which includes, of course, coal, which includes all the other minerals, the petroleum products, all of that, can we look at seeing whether we can double that and what would be a fair timetable or a fair timeframe in which we can double this potential.

I would urge the participants of this conference to reflect on it, to give us more ideas. We are open to new thoughts, new suggestions, ways and means by which we can do this entire process faster, more effectively, more efficiently and expand the frontiers of mining in India so that the next generation that comes in will see a far more developed India, will see an India ready to serve the world with products made in India, the Indian mineral wealth working to add jobs in India, Indian mineral wealth helping us in our efforts to make in India, and all of these efforts put together will comprehensively, just like the GST Bill that has been cleared today finally in all respects, help India accelerate its development process, work towards the better future for all Indians, across the length and breadth of India.

I invite all of you to be a part of this growth story in India. India is open for business. Please be a part of that story.

Thank you very much.

Secretary Mr Pujari, Mr Benerjee, Excellencies, business delegations from UK and India, officials from government of India, from the government of UK, several business representatives from the government companies in India, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. It’s indeed wonderful to see both governments in UK and India working together in this spirit of cooperation and collaboration, particularly, so soon after the announcements made by both Prime Ministers to expand the area of cooperation, particularly, in the field of energy only last August resulting in this UK-India dialogue in April.

It’s great to have you with us your Excellency, and my colleagues and I extend a very very warm welcome to you and to all the other delegates who have come from the United Kingdom to India. At the outset, I pay homage to all the victims of the reprehensible terror attack on 22^nd of March, right outside the British Parliament. It’s truly something that India has faced for nearly two decades now. We have also had a very serious attack on our Indian parliament, many many years ago. And the people of India stand in solidarity with the people of the United Kingdom in the fight against terror that the entire global community is collaborating, is working together to once and for all bring an end to this very very serious threat that humanity is facing.

Both the United Kingdom and India are also partnering very closely in addressing the other threat before the world – the threat of climate change, the threat of global warming. Both governments worked together at Paris, the Paris Declaration is testimony to the efforts of the entire world coming together to face this situation. And I am sure, in the years to come, our engagement will expand even further, particularly, in the light of the various steps that both countries are taking to ensure that we leave behind for the next generation a better planet to live in than the one we inherited.

India and the United Kingdom have a lot of potential areas of engagement. We have benefited from technology from the United Kingdom over the last several years, decades, maybe centuries. India has benefited from the people to people engagement with the United Kingdom. We have benefited deeply while firming up our own constitution and the processes around the legal system from the United Kingdom. And on a more personal note, my daughter having studied at the …….. School, right outside your House of Commons of Parliament. And I remember that day, she was the one who was most disturbed when the attack took place in London, even though she has moved on from UK. And on an even more personal note, I miss Hyde Park deeply. I am sure this India-UK Energy dialogue which is oriented towards strengthening this partnership for mutual benefit, for growth, for a better quality of life for the people of both countries to provide business opportunities, as well as create an enabling framework which helps investments flow directions – from India to the United Kingdom and from the United Kingdom to India, which helps technology flourish across the oceans.

And if one was to really capture the essence of this partnership, I think that can only best be understood from the fact that there is a deep trust factor between the two nations. And that trust defines the future as I see it. The fact that governments of both countries trust each other, the fact that the people of both countries trust each other and feel very comfortable when we are doing business, when we are engaging with each other. I think if you walk down the streets of London, and to my mind, I have never had any visit to London where while walking on the streets I have not had 3 or 4 acquaintances whom I bump into. I don’t know whether the same would happen to you in India given the large population we have here.

But truly, Indians feel very comfortable when we are doing business or we are living or working in the United Kingdom. I am sure this partnership in a post-Brexit era can only strengthen further given the high level of engagement that we have already had, both Prime Ministers, of honorable Finance Minister of India and the Chancellor of the Exchequer having an excellent interaction very very recently. The frequent visits that Ministers on both sides have had to further expand the dialogue and exchanges, both political, commercial business, and in terms of international engagement. And then more particularly the fact that India provides a market opportunity for serving a billion plus people to leverage the strengths of UK in terms of your investment capability, in terms of your ability to provide new technologies, and in terms of India’s ability to adopt to those technologies.

In fact, if one was to look at the energy graph of the United Kingdom and India, particularly, given technological advancements and energy efficiency playing an important role in the days to come, I would suspect the consumption of energy, electricity, other forms of powering your economy would actually fall over the next two or three decades in the United Kingdom leveraging on technology, of course. Whereas in India, even as we leverage technology, we will still need to almost quadruple our energy needs in the next 17 or 18 years.

In this scenario, we provide that big opportunity to UK businesses to expand, to expand at scale, to use your technologies at levels which probably you would not have experienced before. In a small way, India has actually moved the needle on the LED revolution worldwide. From a small market share, global market share of .2%, in under two years, India has expanded the use of LEDs in India to almost have a market share anywhere between 12 and 14%, an expansion of probably 100X in two years. And this can be expanded in many other areas. I was looking at our solar expansion where we are looking at growing by about 40 times in a 7 years’ span. We have actually seen 370% growth in the last 3 years, which would give us a CAGR of almost 70-75% for three years. I personally am unhappy with that, I expected more. In Hindi, there is a saying, ye dil maange more, the heart desires for more.

And I think you will agree with me that in government as representatives of the people working to give a better future to our people, we can never rest, we can never be satisfied with what is achieved. We will certainly have to aspire for more and more. And we will certainly have to have a constituency which is looking for more from us. The day our constituents stop expecting more from us, I think we will start losing elections. And, therefore, Minister Clarke and I are both committed to ensuring the success of this engagement between the United Kingdom and India, in ensuring rapid expansion of our dialogue in different areas, in seeing how both sides could benefit from this engagement, and in playing the role of a catalyst to help businesses on both sides flourish, expand the frontiers of opportunity that is available for both businesses, both from India and the United Kingdom.

And I can assure you that both governments are looking at this partnership between the United Kingdom and India becoming one of the most defining partnerships internationally, expanding beyond the realm of business to a strategic partnership to international cooperation on defense, to cooperation on other areas of mutual interests, engaging with each other to help fight the challenges that the world faces today, and energy will be at the fulcrum of that partnership.

I invite businesspersons from both sides to look at this partnership very very seriously, look at this opportunity, cash-in on this opportunity; don’t let this opportunity go by. And I assure you that both countries will provide you enough opportunity to successfully expand your work. I had in my last visit to the United Kingdom envisaged Indian companies from the power sector, particularly, under my charge raising about a billion dollars from the United Kingdom market, more so from the masala bonds side. And one of the discussions where several colleagues from UK and India were present was that unless we scale up this engagement, we really won’t be able to determine the best pricing structure and the best models of raising credit at attractive and affordable prices.

I am happy to share with you that while the NTPC has already raised some amount of money from the United Kingdom last year, we are looking at another round of raising from NTPC. We would be looking at our Energy Efficiency Services Limited, the company which looks after our energy efficiency activities, raising about a $100 million. The IREDA, the Indian Renewable Energy Development Authority, which is equivalent to our green bank, raising a fair share of money in London through green bonds. And, possibly, one or two of our other financial institutions, raising money also in London so that our target is that in the next couple of months we should be able to meet that originally envisaged billion dollar target on masala bonds.

I wish all of these companies well and I do hope investors in the United Kingdom will make it so attractive, the raising so attractive in London, and your financial infrastructure working to help make these offerings seamless and easy to raise funds, so that we can plan the next $10 billion quickly.

Thank you very much.

………..Sushilji, honourable Secretary Ministry of Coal, Sutirtha, Chairman CIL, Suresh Kumarji, Additional Secretary Mr Verma, colleague from the Central Electricity Authority, all the colleagues from the Ministry of Coal, Power, different companies, the Coal India Limited, its subsidiaries, NTPC, TVC, quality agency CIMFR, colleagues from CEA. And I am told a number of consumers and our customers are here, ladies and gentlemen.

At the outset, before I get into anything else, I would recommend a little change in your programme if you don’t mind. These technical sessions, these 15-15 minute presentations mean nothing, to my mind. I am sorry to get into this detail. I would recommend you spend the first 45 minutes on the first presentation by CIL and have the interaction on that along the way, so that things are live, things are known to everybody. And by the evening, by the time you come down to interaction post lunch in any case half the crowd would have disappeared and half this subject would have been lost. So do a 45-minute presentation on the first run, another 45 minute on TPA. I don’t think you need one hour to have lunch. I have my lunch in 5-6 minutes and most of my colleagues have seen that, and you can keep half an hour if you want to have coffee after that.

And at 2 o’clock when you assemble you have one-one hour sessions on the power producers and the IPPs. Those are really our customers; they are the very purpose for which we are here. So please give them more chance. And I would urge all of you to please speak your mind, just like this Secretary said he likes to speak his mind. I think it’s important that everybody speaks his mind. All of these sessions will be in closed door. The media will leave after the inaugural session and they can join us in the valedictory at about 4.30. I will come at 4.30, between 4.30 and 4.45, after I finish one important meeting. And I would like to see everybody in the room. It will also demonstrate to me the seriousness of my customers. I know my officials will poor fellows sit because I am coming. But I would like to also see the seriousness of the customers, and I hope you have kept a record of all those who are present here.

Also, if possible, I would urge all of you to sit through the day, not go in and out. Unfortunately, I have to go out. I had requested him that you do it after parliament then I wanted to sit the whole day also. But he was of the opinion and rightly so that the more we delay we are losing time, and having achieved this significant milestone of adequate quantity in his quest for quantity and quality. I am sure it’s of urgent need that we focus on quality. Of course, I must compliment all of you, both the customers and the suppliers for what has happened in the last two-two and a half-three years. I believe the Station Heat Rates have improved significantly. I am told there is an 8% reduction in consumption of coal per unit of electricity generated.

In 2013-14, the specific coal consumption was about .69 kilos per kilowatt hour the nation as a whole as per data, which I believe must have come from CEA, has now come down to .63 KGs per kilowatt hour. This is a significant milestone in India’s journey towards affordable power for all 24/7. And I am sure, this can be better also. We do have our challenges of the grade of coal that is available in India, the high amount of fly ash. These problems will be there but the problems are there only as long as we don’t find a solution to the problem, then everybody will forget the problem. Today, nobody remembers that 61 plants, nearly 2/3^rd of the power plants were starved of coal in 2014 when the Modi government came in. I believe today there is none, maybe one plant in Vizag where there is a logistics problem, it’s a private plant, they are unable to sort out their logistics problem or something. In April, even they were, a few days back even they had enough coal. If there is anywhere we can help them with the logistics let’s help them but let’s make sure, so it’s a great feeling to see that 61 out of 100 becomes 0 out 100. It’s a great thing to see on the Vidyut Pravah that round the clock, 24/7, at a very reasonable price, any DISCOM can buy power today.

The fact that customers have confidence that they can get coal when they want it has helped them bring down their coal stocks from 27-28 days to 19 days. All of these are things for which I must say the people of India and all of us are extremely proud of Coal India, extremely proud of all the subsidiaries of Coal India. Also of our other company SCCL, all they also present here? Singareni is not present? I wish you had called them also. Next time you must think beyond silos. Any such engagement should be across the sector, including if necessary private miners who could have helped us also with their own experiences. And I would like to institutionalize this mechanism of a quality workshop, so it moves out of Coal India to a Coal Industry Workshop. And I am glad that power is also represented here, the power producers are here and let’s be more inclusive.

In some sense, I don’t know how many of you heard it, but the honorable Prime Minister when speaking at the India Today Conclave, I believe only 8 days, 9 days ago, in Mumbai, had spoken about this subject. And, of course, it is a matter of pride for us that the coal shortages, power shortages are a thing of the past, but the good thing is that public memory is so short that they forget what was the past very quickly once the new normal is established. Now we have a new normal even in the power sector. We have a new normal gradually evolving in the coal sector. And people have forgotten those bad old days which is good. We don’t need to again and again remind ourselves or the people of the days when coal was always perpetually in short supply. The Director Marketing of Coal used to sit like a king and allocate coal blocks, coal linkages or the Coal Secretary would allocate coal blocks, along with his political masters, of course.

And I remember, I don’t know if any of you was there in my August 2014 meetings, some of you may have been there. In August 2014, Gopal was certainly there, I think आप नहीं थे, राजीव जी नहीं थे, ज्यादा लोग नए आये हैं अभी in CIL also, but you are a veteran in the industry. Is it good or bad? But, in August of 2014, नया नया मंत्री बना था, when we were having a review of Coal India at the Ashoka Hotel. And थोडा, all my meetings go on long, I think most of my colleagues now are very much aware of it. तो रात को 11-11.30 बज गए थे, खाना-वाना नहीं खाया था, शायद उस समय तो लोगों को लगा होगा कुछ और भी मिलेगा खाने के साथ | अब आदत पड़ गयी है कि इस सरकार में वह सब चीज़ें नहीं होती हैं | But I remember at about 11-11.30, out of frustration, literally wringing my hair I had said this company will have to produce a billion tonnes of coal, without that there is no solution for India’s problems.

And I am delighted that you all have taken rapid strides to achieve this significant milestone where no power plant in the country, no consumer needs to be deprived of domestic coal. I believe you have seen coal imports come down by nearly 25,000 crores, and this could become even better if earlier governments had not planned power plants based on imported coal. If we had not had the unfortunate situation where these thousands of megawatts of power plants which cannot use this high fly ash coal or the quality of domestic coal, possibly, we could eliminate import of coal in this sector. Even the coastal plants we are working to see if we can barge the coal to Paradip or somewhere and then ship it to the coastal plants on the West and the Southern coal power plants. In fact, I am delighted that Tamil Nadu, which had been insisting despite my persistent efforts on a ultra-mega power plant at Cheyyur based on imported coal. And I used to again and again request that why do you want to set up now a power plant on coal. And I used to keep delaying the process of preparing the documents on imported coal. And I am delighted to share with all of you that about 2 weeks back, the honorable Minister from Tamil Nadu, the Power Minister has come and given me a letter that we will be wanting to set up Cheyyur power plant also on domestic coal, not on imported coal.

That’s the measure of confidence that Mr Modi and his leadership has developed in the country. That is the future of this country – self-reliance, a strong domestic economy, confidence in our own ability to meet the challenges of tomorrow, and comfort in the security that nobody in the world can damage our economy, can cause us any distress, or at any point of time can hold us to ransom when it comes to our energy needs.

In fact, there is a saying – the difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination. And I am delighted to see that determination in all of you to make a difference to the lives of the people of India. In fact, in that same meeting in August I had made two predictions, one actually was a prediction, one was a desire. The prediction today has come true, of course, at the ……… of Mr Prasad, Director Marketing of CIL. And the prediction was, and I distinctly remember, I don’t know if Gopal you remember, August 2014 I had said that two years from now, either I said one and a half years or two years, मुझे इतना याद नहीं आ रहा है, two years from now, the Coal India Director Marketing will not sit in his office and allocate coal but will have to go with a bowl to every consumer trying to sell coal to the people. And I think we have reached a situation where he is more facing more flak from me for not being able to liquidate stocks fast enough.

But my desire is something which is still not fulfilled and which is the purpose of this workshop. In that same meeting, while setting the benchmark of 1 billion tonne production, I had also said one more thing, I had appealed to the senior management of Coal India that our goal should be that when we step out of our home or we walk on the road and a person who sees us or meets us and asks us what do you do? And we say I work for Coal India Limited. He should not look at you with contempt. He should not look at you with, oh, that is a lethargic organisation. This is an organisation which is full of problems. This is an organisation which is fleecing us, overcharging us. This is an organisation because of which we are not generating enough power. And there used to be a calculation where the CEA used to do loss of power generated for lack of coal, यह calculation चलती थी till 2 years ago. आज वह बंद हो गयी है because there is zero, zero loss of power for want of coal. And I had said that my desire is that when you walk out in the street, the person, when you introduce yourself, should look up to you and say, ‘wow, you are the guy who provides me power in my home to make sure my children can study 24/7. Who makes sure in the night I don’t have to sleep in darkness, fearful of what used to happen in Uttar Pradesh until a few days ago. I don’t have to worry when I go to my fields because there is no light on the streets.

And I think that’s what our quality workshop today is all about. We should be able to walk out and say, this is an efficient organisation. This is an organisation which serves the country honorably and it’s a delight to work in this company, or a delight for consumers to engage with this company, to buy from this company. And mind you, world is changing. The distinction between public sector and private sector is fast diminishing. There are other sectors of the economy which as they opened up and more competition came in have failed to live up to the country’s expectations and we can see what is their situation today, I will not name any sectors.

And then there is an NTPC, which today can take pride in the fact that it’s one of the most efficiently run public sector units, can take any private sector power producer head-on, can challenge anybody to perform better than it. I hope I am right. And that’s what Coal India will have to prepare itself for. We are fast opening up this sector to more and more competition. A number of mines which were auctioned are opening up. Gradually, you will see more and more private miners coming into the field and I think gone are the days when you could based on your whim and fancy provide bad quality coal, provide coal which was over-sized, provide coal at any price what you like. Those days are gone. And I do hope the power producers in the room appreciate, other than the coal cess which, of course, is because we want to help reduce pollution in the country’s support environment-friendly measures.

Other than that, the Coal India in our 3 years has not increased prices effectively. There was a price rationalization only once, which was more to bring down the cost of the higher grades of coal, and make it competitive and have a market for them and reduce this queue. Earlier, the pricing was like a parabolic curve between the lower grades of coal and the higher grades. We are trying to bring some lineality to it so that per calorific value whatever you buy. And that way you will be encouraged to buy higher grades of coal which will reduce your freight cost, reduce the pollution. Effectively, that’s the better way to go. We should look at encouraging more and more consumption of higher grades, which is why we are trying to bring down prices. I am told हज़ार हज़ार रुपये भी कम किया था कुछ grades में, और नहीं किया तो कर दो अभी |

But, price increase is not the solution to efficiency. You can’t expect your consumer to pay for your bad quality or your bad efficiency in operations. I have been again and again repeatedly asking you to review the working of each mine, independently, maybe engage cost accountants. I am not trying to get business for cost and management accountants. But, seriously, after all, all the private people who are sitting here must be re-engineering their businesses continuously to remain competitive in the market. You have got to do the same. We should know whether every mine has a value proposition, whether it helps you to add value to the country or its depleting and sucking out value from the economy. We will have to look at productivity of our employees and our workers, and by productivity I include contract workers. Don’t try to fool yourself by ignoring the MDO contracts or the contractual workers who engage in all sorts of activity in the company. We want a total manpower input vs output assessment. There’s going to be a wage increase, the negotiations are already underway. Don’t come back to me with a huge bill of price increases, become more efficient in your working. Talk to the workers unions to improve productivity……… Improve the efficiency of top management inputs.

All of this is also quality, mind you. Quality is not only about your grade of …. I am delighted that Secretary Coal has focused a lot on the, I believe they engaged 5 government agencies, IITs and experts like that, and they have completed the sampling and analysis of coal samples in about a month and a half and declared revised grades on 24^th March, which have been adopted from 1^st April. And the figures are quite mindboggling, about 1961 samples were collected, from CIL 1742, from Singaroni 219, both from the mine and the dispatch points, which is excellent, which is another new, probably, done for the first time. And out of 386 producing mines in Coal India there was a grade slippage in 46% of the mines, 177 mines have been reclassified. Of course, in about 90 sidings, there’s been a significant grade slippage. Now, these are things of concern that, ultimately, earlier you were billing people. Until 3 years ago you were getting away with it. Today, now you can’t get away with it because CIMFR and other people are doing third party sampling because of which you have give credit notes.

And, therefore, as the Secretary rightly pointed out, we have to get over this hump on this quality and quality inspections and quality slippages. They should get what they pay for. Period. And don’t blame it on the railways, you will be surprised. Maybe I am getting to be like talking too much of stories. One meeting in June, my first interaction with CIL, June 30^th, I still remember the day of 2014. I was at the CIL headquarters, in the older headquarters, the building where I wanted to set up a museum but you are doing nothing about it, unfortunately. Somebody has to be given that task, give it to some of these youngsters. I want a coal museum in that old headquarter building.

In that office in the meeting when I was struggling, and the issue was coal quality, that day also and today also. And I was trying to ask them कि यह क्या हो रहा है? How does boulders and stones come in your coal that you supply to the power plants? One of the CMDs of a subsidiary, he’s retired now, tells me, साहब हमारे यहाँ से तो कोयला एकदम ठीक निकलता है, वह रास्ते में ट्रेन को रोक देते हैं, उसमें से अच्छा कोयला चोरी करते हैं और यह पत्थर उसमें डाल देते हैं | मैं तो हैरान हो गया, मैंने कहा यार चोरी तो हमने आजतक सुनी थी लेकिन कभी आजतक यह नहीं सुना कि चोर लोग बड़े बड़े भारी पत्थर उठाके वह railway wagon के ऊपर डालते हैं | तुम्हें याद है गोपाल वह conversation?

But I am glad that, by and large, I think that coal over-sized problem is now thing of the past. So we will have to be an organisation which really takes these things seriously. I would urge you, and by the way, all conversation after I go away will be confidential in this room. Nobody will quote anything that is discussed so that everything can be free and frank and that is for your own good. If you start talking about it and trying to make stories and stuff like that, we will stop having these conferences. फिर जाके everything will go back into the files, जो भी paperwork है वह फाइलों के through होगा | मेरा approach है खुले दिल से बात करनी चाहिए, कोई आलोचना हो तो उसको भी स्वागत करना चाहिए, आलोचना से कुछ न कुछ सीखने को मिलता है, कुछ न कुछ सुधार करने का मौका मिलता है | और हम सबको, ultimately, उस गरीब को अपने मन, अपने दिमाग के सामने, अपने आपके, अपने नज़र के सामने हर वक्त रखना चाहिए, जिसको आज भी दो वक्त की रोटी नहीं मिलती | लेकिन जिसकी ज़रूरत है, कोई luxury नहीं है, उसकी ज़रूरत है, उसके भी बच्चों को भी पढाई करने का मौका चाहिए | यह नहीं हो सकता है कि समाज का एक वर्ग तो आगे बढ़ता ही जाये और दूसरे वर्ग को हम perpetually पीछे छोड़े रहें | हम में से कई लोग होंगे, my own father I have told you before studied under a streetlight. I am sure none of us here wishes that for any other child. फिर वह चाहे power producer हो, चाहे coal देने वाला हो, value chain में हम मैं से कोई भी हो, CEA का अलग रोल रहता है | आपको शायद CERC से भी किसी को बुला लेना चाहिए अगर tea break के बीच में किसी को फ़ोन करके बुला सको |

आप थोडा inclusive discussion करिए, हर एक को उसका लाभ मिले, हर एक के उसमें inputs हों| लेकिन जो पंडित दीन दयाल उपाध्याय ने जिनकी जन्म शताब्दी हम मना रहे हैं इस वर्ष और हम सबके प्रेरणा थे वह, सबको उन्होंने मार्ग दिखाया, उनके कहे हुए दिशा पे हम सब काम कर रहे हैं इस सरकार में | पंडित दीन दयाल उपाध्याय ने जो अन्त्योदय की कल्पना रखी थी कि समाज का जो सामर्थ है, समाज के पास जो उपलब्ध resources हैं उसका अगर किसी का पहला अधिकार है तो वह गरीब से गरीब व्यक्ति का है, जो समाज में अंतिम छोर पे खड़ा है | और यह हम सबका दायित्व है चाहे हम power plant चलाते हों, coal, कोई भी काम करते हों हम सबको अपने अपने काम में उस व्यक्ति को कैसे सस्ती बिजली मिले, चौबीसों घंटे मिले, उसके बच्चे का जीवन स्तर कैसे सुधरे उसको अगर हम आँख के सामने रखेंगे | और यह मैं private sector के भी power producers को भी कह रहा हूँ, अपने लोगों को तो कहता रहता हों, कि आप भी अपनी efficiency को internalize करिए, सोचिये, आप भी देखिये आपके end पे क्या किया जा सकता है, आप भी देखिये कैसे आप और efficiently चलायें बिना बैंक को बोले कि आप बैंक में ….. लो या बिना हमारे पास रोते हुए हर चीज़ पे आयें कि भाई हमको यह सुविधा चाहिए, यह concession चाहिए, यह रहत चाहिए |

हम सबको सामूहिक रूप से अपनी अपनी efficiency सुधारनी पड़ेगी, Coal India में तो बहुत काम करने की आवश्यकता है | मुझे पूरा विश्वास है यह जो 10% का इन्होने cap रखा है कि quality control complaints उससे ज्यादा नहीं होनी चाहिए, यह cap है, यह collar नहीं है, यह bottom नहीं है, कोशिश तो हमारी होनी चाहिए 0 की तरफ चलें | एक-आद केस कभी गलती हो जाये वह मैं समझ सकता हूँ | और हमारी कोशिश होनी चाहिए जैसे आज के दिन कोयले का स्टॉक रखने की किसी को आवश्यकता नहीं पड़ती है और लोगों ने 10 दिन stock ही कम कर दिया, 10-12 million tonne कम कर दिया | अहिस्ते अहिस्ते और कंपनियां भी यह काम करेंगी, वैसे ही quality के मामले में भी इतनी विश्वसनीयता बन जानी चाहिए | The trust factor should come in, that people don’t have to even bother about checking. They don’t even have to bother about having a third party inspector but have the confidence and the trust in Coal India and any other coal supplier that when you give something, it will be good, it will be the stated quality, the stated quantity, and can be literally used like a Just-in-time coal directly into the power plant.

In fact, I don’t know how coal consumption is used in the power companies, whether you continuously remove your old stock and let the new stock come in or you lose a JIT. Because I am told that coal if kept for a long time after loses depletes value and the coal becomes brittle powder at the bottom and all, which may also be causing some stress and some slippages at your power production.

तो हम सबको अपने अपने processes देखने पड़ेंगे | जब आप Coal Quality Workshop कर रहे हैं तो आपको यह भी बताना पड़ेगा आपकी companies में private sector को, you can’t say कि नया कोयला ऊपर आया और ऊपर से consume हो गया, पुराना नीचे के नीचे पड़ा रह गया | There has to be a proper system in your stocking also that coal keeps getting consumed quickly if you are keeping 20 days stock तो जो 20 दिन पहले कोयला आया वह पहले ही use होना चाहिए, ऐसा नहीं हो सकता 4 साल तक कुछ कोयला नीचे ही पड़ा रह गया | और मेरे खयाल से यही coal companies को भी apply करना है, जहाँ से भी हम supply करते हैं, one reason of slippage, not that I had thought of it, मेरे को अभी अभी ध्यान आया बात करते करते कि ऐसा तो नहीं हो रहा है कि हम ऊपर का coal supply करते जा रहे हैं, नीचे का पड़ा रहता है और जब भी वह जाता है तो significant coal slippage हो जाता है |

We will also have to make sure पुराना coal और उसमें अगर आपके यहाँ कुछ गड़बड़ी-वडबड़ी हो stock की तो वह भी सामने आ जाएगी | And सच्चाई से हमें मुंह नहीं फेरना चाहिए, सच्चाई को accept करके सच्चाई के ऊपर क्या हम कदम उठा सकते हैं, कैसे सुधार सकते हैं उसी पे focus रहना चाहिए | एक आखरी बात मैं quality control वालों को भी कहना चाहूँगा, मैंने उस दिन भी आपको कहा था जब आपके कार्यक्रम में आया था | हम अभी expand भी कर रहे हैं, नयी कंपनियों को भी ले रहे हैं quality control के लिए, CIMFR के अलावा यहाँ और कोई है quality का? ISM quality council. देखिये मैंने भी फैक्ट्री चलायी है और हमारी export consignments पे भी quality control होता था, और बड़ी बड़ी विदेशी कंपनियां, foreign companies used to come and do quality control of our export consignments. And, therefore, I know what happens when quality consignments are checked. I don’t need to be more specific, do I?

समझ रहे हो कि मैं और स्पष्ट रूप से बोलूं | संज्ञान में आ गया, आपको भी QCI? और मुझे थोड़ी complaints भी मिली हैं, complaints दोनों की मिली है, coal कंपनियों की भी, कोल् inspection की भी, तो मैं थोडा चेतावनी देना चाहूँगा आज | अगर sample निकालने में, sampling में कोई coal company के लोग कुछ गलत काम करते हैं तो आप मेहरबानी करके कुछ एक whistleblower mechanism बनाइये | किस ने भ्रष्टाचार किया, किस ने कुछ माँगा भी, चाहे दिया न हो माँगा भी, तो हमें जानकारी हो, जानकारी पर नज़र रखी जाये | You may not be able to take action only one man’s word against the other, तो उससे उलटी problem ना हो जाए कहीं whistleblowers ही उलटे हमारे को blackmail न करने लगे | But उसपे नज़र रखके कैसे पता करना और आजकल तो बड़ा सरल है ज़रा सी complaint कर दो, किधर न किधर तो लपेटे में आदमी को लिया जा सकता है |

और similarly आपके inspectors वगैरा को भी चेतावनी दे दीजिये और जो भी लोग इस हमारे साथ बिना भ्रष्टाचार के नहीं काम कर सकते हैं उनको बोलो resign करके चले जाओ या हमारा पास, atleast मेरे कोई sector में मत आओ आप और…….. आज वास्तव में तो लगभग सरकारी कंपनियां ही आयेंगे तो आपको तो उनको resign ही करवाना पड़ेगा | But, positively, please set up good systems within your organisations, all the coal companies set up good systems within your organisations to make sure कि हमको कभी कोई सख्त कार्रवाई ना करनी पड़े | और अब तो मुझे लगता है थोडा बहुत messaging भी हो गया है कि यह सरकार सख्त कार्रवाई कर सकती है, Coal India has already seen that.

और कार्रवाई करने के पहले कोई जल्दबाजी में भी नहीं करते हैं, पूरी सोच-समझ के जानकारियाँ लेके फिर करी जाती है | लेकिन मैं चाहूँगा कि हमारे sectors संवेदना से काम करें | It’s, with concern, because what we are doing impacts a 120 crore people of India. It impacts the poorest of the poor in every which way. And I am saying that because वह आज एक ढाबे में जाके कोई खाना भी खाता है तो घूम-फिर के वह कोयले का खर्चा उसपे आता है, he may not be using coal, पर जो भी बिजली जो भी इस्तेमाल कर रहा है, चाहे वह आटे की चक्की क्यों न हो, चाहे वह ढाबे की लाइटिंग क्यों न हो, हर जगह पे बिजली तो अनिवार्य है इस्तेमाल के लिए | Steel, cement, aluminium यह सब जो वस्तुएं हैं यह तो अनिवार्य है कि use होंगे, अलग अलग रूप में किसी भी व्यक्ति के कोई भी काम में और इन सबका linkage घूम-फिर के कोयले से आता है |

तो आप सबको बस इतना ही request करूँगा कि अपने काम को सिर्फ एक मात्र job नहीं, सिर्फ target नहीं, सिर्फ performance-linked incentive नहीं लेकिन एक mission, a mission to help India and all Indians. इस प्रकार के mission के रूप में अगर हम देखें तो मैं समझता हूँ काम भी सरल हो जायेगा, सुधार भी सरल हो जायेगा और वह काम फिर जब जनता देखेगी तब वह दिन आएगा जब हमारे CIL का हर एक employee सड़क पे बाहर जायेगा और गर्व से कहेगा कि मैं Coal India का employee हूँ और सामने वाला देखके उसकी भी आँखें चौंक जाएँगी कि वाह क्या काम है |

Thank you.

 

 

But it’s certainly possible, I don’t believe that anything is impossible and I am glad that the railways is thinking big, it’s thinking bold. And it’s beautiful to see the enthusiasm that Mr Prabhu has and the way the whole railway system is geared up to look at powering the railways in a more efficient manner. I believe the workshop is looking at 5 GW potential for railways. Actually, it’s not difficult. I don’t see any great difficulty in achieving that. I think they have about 8,500 odd railway stations.

The Katra experiment has been extremely successful. The honorable Prime Minister himself inaugurated it. You have announcements of a large number of railway stations soon going to be powered by solar. And, in the railways you need power even during the day time, so generating power through solar makes eminent sense. You have the offices there and you have the facilities for providing clean drinking water, the shops, the, I don’t know if the coaches when they come there could also in some way benefit from that power, something which you all can discuss during the course of the day.

But, most importantly, railways has a lot of land which is under encroachment now or some of it is under encroachment, and which is a potential for further encroachments. And, to my mind, there can be no better solution and no amount of policing can save the railway line from encroachment, particularly, since it’s spread out all across the country. In Mumbai, they must have lost very very expensive real estate to encroachment. But just imagine for a moment, if all of that land could be used for solar installation, whatever land the railway has, including the land where they have started a project which is stalled either for lack of funds or for lack of the entire right of way. So they have bought land in stretches and I don’t know whether you are aware there are projects which as a legacy we inherited, announcements made as long as 1975, 40 years ago, which have still not been completed, many of them for lack of the right of way through the stretch of the railway and other reasons.

This government, of course, has stopped announcing all new projects. We are trying to focus to get this legacy sorted out, get these projects into operation so that they can serve the people of India, they can start transporting passengers, freight, earning some revenue for the railways. And, in that sense, it’s very efficient management of the railways that we have seen honourable Minister Mr Prabhu and before him Mr Gowda run. But if we could put solar panels on this land, moving these solar panels at any point of time when they need to actually use that land is no big deal. Some of you could possibly guide us what would be the cost of moving a solar panel from one to the other place, and what would be the saving in terms of policing that land, potential loss of land, potential cost of rehabilitating those who have encroached railway land, maybe an exercise which you could do during the course of the day.

But clearly, 5 GW is not difficult. I can’t mandate it, but I do hope the railways will only use domestic equipment for powering their requirements and absolutely not allow any imports to come in. Modules, of course, we have enough capacity; cells, I am trying to encourage people to set up more capacity. It’s a chicken and egg story, once they see visibility of business and demand, I am sure more investment will come in. And as we get polysilicon wafers into the country, we will, of course, make it compulsory to use only domestically produced wafers also.

So, you are from the railways gentlemen? I do hope you will make sure that absolutely not a single rupee of business, irrespective of price, even if it is slightly more, goes to any imports. The CPSU should only use domestic equipment, particularly, after all that has happened in the last few months, I won’t repeat that. It’s important that we support our domestic industry and I think the whole world is looking at it now, so we don’t need to be apologetic about it. In fact, yesterday I was talking to the honorable Commerce Minister late last evening for that matter, and it’s food for thought for any of you who would like to research it, maybe you could help me research it. Areas where other countries do not allow India to participate, I believe we should not allow those countries and their companies to participate in India. So there are certain countries which came to my attention recently, actually, people should stop taking appointment from me and coming to meet me because it costs them dear. A company from a particular country came and met me saying that they want to invest in India and invest in a certain sector of the power value chain. And in the course of conversation, I casually asked him, what country can PGCIL also invest because I am looking for more frontiers for our PSUs to invest. And he said no no, our country doesn’t allow investment from other countries in this sector. And since then I have been struggling that we have to make sure that this stops in India. And we are not like with our, there are ladies here so I can’t use the right expression.

And I am often misquoted, I am actually I am being, my colleagues keep telling me – talk less, talk less. But honestly, would all of you not agree with me when I say this? And then I had instructed my office they set up a committee and they are good at committees, every government is good at committees. Fortunately, yesterday I was signing, रामनवमी का देखो कितना लाभ हो गया मुझे, भगवन राम भी देखते रहते हैं हमारे काम को इसलिए हमें भी उनका चिन्ता करनी चाहिए मुझे लगता है, है कोई मीडिया यहाँ पर?

But I was doing my questions and there was an answer to a question in which that particular topic was being addressed. And in the election I saw there are some bids where the same companies have bid. And I immediately called up the Power Secretary; I said why have you not taken action as yet. He said a committee is looking at it and I have talked to other colleagues, it’s a little difficult, how can we stop any country from investing when there is 100% FDI in that sector. I said what non sense, we have to stop it. So I called up the Commerce Minister and that’s what has set the chain going. And I think this is how India should protect our domestic industry, should encourage our domestic industry, and try to bring level playing field wherever in the world we are discriminated against. We won the UP elections, by the way, with a large political plank being no discrimination of any sort. And I think the same applies to international trade.

You can’t have a situation that a particular country comes and files a complaint against us for helping our domestic industry and then do the same in their own country. So these are areas in which I have very strong views. All those who are here from the railways, please make sure it’s 100% domestic procurement because you are using it for your own requirement, CPSU requirement, there is no restriction on supporting domestic industry.

Now with the prices so low, balance of plant equipment also largely Indian, if there is anything which is not Indian I told you guys to tell me what more do we need to do to have the BOK equipment totally indigenous. Now the solar piece has become very small, as I discovered from the recent bids. So I think it’s very much eminently doable that even if it is a, slightly cost more, we make sure that domestic industry gets a leg up and we see more and more empowerment of the domestic industry.

The railways also has embarked on a excellent programme to accelerate the electrification of railway lines, which also will bring down the energy cost significantly. I believe you have some programme called 41K, say 41,000 crores, एक 0 और add कर दो, कुछ और सोचो, अभी 2 रुपये में अगर बिजली मिलेगी | But diesel is another area we have to put an end to, it’s certainly not doing us any good. We are importing petroleum products and we have so much sun, wind, water in the country. Let’s try and expand the footprint of renewable, it’s good for the country; it’s good for the next generation. All these young kids here I am sure want us to save the planet and save the world for them. So let’s all of us contribute in that. Of course, I must compliment you Arunab, you are doing a excellent job. Your think tank I believe is rated amongst one of the most independent and well managed think tanks, so I must compliment you and all your colleagues for the good work you are doing in my sector. Of course, I have a complaint, I tried to get him, win him out of EEW, CEW and come and work for me. But he refused. But then you are doing good work in your organisation and please continue to do that.

In terms of the sector per se, I believe the railways has planned a far more efficient utilization of sources for their energy. They have now also supported the Ratnagiri Power to restart, and I must thank you and all your colleagues and please convey to Sureshji my grateful thanks. Because before 31^st March, which we had expected and planned, the railways has agreed to buy 500 MW of gas-based power from the Ratnagiri plant, so that that power plant also can stand on its feet. It will support the LNG terminal restart and then expand the LNG terminal so that LNG becomes an independent business vertical, working profitably and the power plant gives them enough power so that the auxiliaries that are required to run the LNG plant. My God, at this speed I could to probably apply for an engineering degree. I hope I don’t forget my finance. But I have to ………….

But it’s really been an example of how we can support each other, work as a team, break the silos between different departments and Ministries in the government. And the revival of the RGPPL is one very very good initiative and example of how different Ministries – the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the Ministry of Power, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Finance – all worked as one team to protect investment in India, protect jobs in India, restart a project that otherwise would have caused severe stress to the banking sector which would have caused job losses, which would have actually derailed an initiative to support the gas-based power plants. And I must thank railways because that was an important pivot for achieving this success story.

Today I read in the paper something about the gas-based power plants not restarting. I will take this opportunity to just let the people know. We did support the gas-based power plants for 2 years, but towards the last 6-8 months, nobody was buying power from them. Now this is where a virtuous act becomes a vice or a …… around your neck. And I thought bringing down power tariffs and power price in the country was a virtue, and I thought I was doing my job efficiently. But, the cost of that is being paid by these gas-based power plants, because nobody is willing to buy power from these plants at any price today. It’s available at such affordable and low prices across the country. Last few days I have been monitoring, particularly, because of the scorching heat and summer since the power demand has gone up significantly. I have been monitoring to make sure that we don’t see any stress in the system. And I am delighted to share with you that even through the last few days, power was available almost across the country any time of the day, including the peak hours at very very low prices. Probably, at prices which are 1/3^rd or 1/4^th of what they used to be 3 or 4 years ago. 1/3^rd, that’s a deduction of over 60%, in some cases over 70% compared to what it was a few years ago.

Now when power has become so affordable, that’s how we are going to be able to get the DISCOMs in good shape, that’s how we are going to be able to get them to give 24/7 power to the entire country. And, of course, that will also be a challenge on renewables because that price has to come down, and there also we have had significant success. Wind, you saw just the first wind-based tariff-based bidding Rs 3.46, now, of course, that would be a price for certain regions where the wind load factor is very high. It may not necessarily be a benchmark, but I am confident as the volumes increase, this price could even further be better. And that’s the strength and power of honesty, where you run your programme in a non-discriminatory manner, where everybody has ability to bid and be a part of the business. It’s the power of scale. India added more than twice what it had the previous year, over 5000 MW of wind power in the last one year alone. Solar, of course, we are at about 4X what we were 3 years back.

And all of this has added scale, has brought new technologies and brought the prices down to affordable levels. Otherwise, ultimately, you can’t support the renewables if they are not at competitive prices, and in that same stream, the gas today will also have to become competitive. And, I think all those gas plants will have to move the needle, they cannot always be looking for crutches from the government. They will have to go around the world, look for cheaper sources of power, they will have to negotiate better terms, longer terms, and get, and any case power prices today are not that phenomenal that you can’t go out and get some gas contracts.

I am also trying. I am also trying if I can get some reasonable prices over the long run so that power tariff does not go up, power price remains affordable. But it can be nobody’s case that we stress the consumers of India with expensive power just because somebody invested a few years ago in a project today is not found viable or today does not have the kind of gas that it had few years ago. It’s not as if the government has stopped producing gas, some private sector company could not produce as much gas as they were at one point of time, cannot be the responsibility of people of India or of the government. So I think if we can get gas at affordable prices, if anybody can help us get that, if it’s possible to bring those prices at atleast some sense of parity, then we can look at supporting that industry and getting them back into action.

Energy efficiency has been the hallmark and one of the most important programmes of this government. In fact, when I look at the growth, while we are growing far faster than what it was in the previous 10 years, our first three years of power consumption growth has been more than the CAGR of the last 10 years. But one must also bear in mind that this is on the back of huge amount of energy efficiency measures. The company EESL alone has sold over 220 million LED bulbs, apart from LED tube lights, energy efficient fans, the PAT programme. But the private sector also has sold over 270 million LED bulbs and when you put all of that together and see what could be the potential growth in energy consumption if we had not implemented this energy efficiency programme. And Arunab you could do some study on that, independent study.

We actually found that it could have otherwise resulted in an additional CAGR of over 3%. So, effectively, the country could have seen 9-9.5% growth in electricity consumption, again, a virtue where we are saving electricity, saving your electricity bills becoming a cause of complaint and criticism. Of course, I don’t mind this kind of criticism, I am happy. Only thing is that the criticism comes from lack of understanding and research, and serious thinking behind what is said. In fact, that is what I had tried to share and kind of give food for thought in an interaction, in an informal interaction I had with some editors day before yesterday, which I am told yesterday was going around on Whatsapp as a message that I have threatened the editors or whatever. I have told them to mend their arrogant ways, some such word I read. I mean I just fail to understand either in this world we should just all of us stay at home or in our office and stop interacting with anybody for lack of being understood.

But all that I was saying was there should be more research, more understanding, more thought being given before one ranks anything. Because, after all, whenever anything is written or spoken, it carries weight. Suppose I say anything standing here, it carries some weight, not because I am saying it because I have a particular position and that position is saying. And, after all, you all listen to each word carefully to either pick a business opportunity, take a thought, an idea or pick a fault, anyone of them. Which is all fine, even the fault is equally fine but what I only wish and that’s why I complimented you Arunab and your think tank for the detail in which you do your research for the proper analytical studies that you come up with. And they are often critical of my work, or critical of the government which is fine my way, as long as it is a studious research, as long as it is based on fact and serious thinking. And that’s all that I was trying to tell friends in an informal conversation. But it’s sad I think not much can be done in some areas.

But I am delighted that the railways has also joined the energy efficiency movement and has tied up with EESL so that we can have 100% LED being used throughout the railways. I think even our, if you go to see, I don’t know if any of you may be people who don’t travel in railways. I still do, and I see a distinct improvement in the way the railways is kept, cleanliness of the toilets. I make it a point to go to the toilets in every station which I use in the railways. The metro is a shining example of very efficient working. But I go to railways, go to Shri Mahavirji, for instance, in the railways, so I go through two other states right into Rajasthan into the interiors – spick and span railways stations, clean as hell, a lot of encroachments are out on the railways stations, new escalators are being put up. I always go to the toilet and I see a marked difference and an improvement.

So I can see that the railways are really working hard in different areas to bring in efficiency, bring in better customer service, passenger amenities, freight. For the first time in years and years, and I myself used to complain till two years ago, for the first time Mr Prabhu called me every month to demand more railway freight for his system from the coal industry. He said, Piyush you had promised me so many rakes in the beginning of the year, they are not happening, they are not happening. That’s the kind of leadership that this country needed and I am delighted that Mr Suresh Prabhu has changed the way the railways used to function, has changed the thinking of the railways from one of populism to one of efficiency, to one of serious customer satisfaction, to one of implementation rather than promise, and to one which is going to become the engine of India’s future development.

Thank you to the railways. Thank you to all of you.

 

The State-run Power Grid Corporation has commissioned the 765 kV Wardha-Nizamabad D/C line along with the 765/400 kV Nizamabad GIS Substation, well ahead of scheduled completion time of May 2018.

The completion of this project along with some other transmission lines will significantly boost inter-regional connectivity.

V Sekhar, Executive Director, Southern Region-I, has informed that this system will facilitate import of power from Western Region, mainly Chattisgarh, for which long-term access has been granted to Telangana. According to the desire of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, the project was fast-tracked and completed in a record time. Power Grid expressed its gratitude for the support rendered by the State and various districts administration to complete this project. This line will play a big role in transmission of power from other States, particularly the power surplus State of Chattisgarh.

Enhancing capacity
During 2016-17, Power Grid commissioned another major inter-regional link in the corridor of 765kV Angul–Srikakulam–Vemagiri D/C line facilitating the import of Eastern Region power into Southern Region in January 2017.

With the commissioning of the above two links, an inter-regional power transfer capacity of 9,000 MW is made available to the entire Southern Region.

Apart from the above transmission links, a 400/220 kV Substation to evacuate power from Solar Park at NP Kunta was commissioned in a record period of seven months from handing over of land during 2016-17. This has greatly boosted the renewable energy integration into the grid.

Vemagiri, other projects

During 2017-18, Power Grid through its subsidiary PSITSL, will be implementing the transmission system beyond Vemagiri which will enable power transfer to the new Capital region of Andhra Pradesh and further connection to Kadapa and Tumkur.

The works of 800 kV Raigarh-Pugulur HVDC project will also be under implementation and the completion of which will enable further inter-regional power transfer capacity of 6,000 MW for the Southern Region.

Criticism comes from the lack of understanding. There should be more research, understanding & thought be given before one writes anything.

NTPC‘s 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station has achieved a record power generation of 3,225 million units against the design capacity of 3054 million units during the financial year 2016-17, which is more than 5 per cent above the design energy, said Sanjeev Kishore, Group General Manager of the power station. The Group General Manager informed that 2016-17 was the first full year of operations of the power plant.

Sanjeev Kishore said that the power plant had thus surpassed all the targets of generation. The plant, he added, had also surpassed the normative declared capacity of 90 per cent by achieving 106.42 per cent with annual PLF of 46 per cent which was nearly 2 per cent more than the design PLF.

The financial year 2016-17, Sanjeev Kishore informed, was a year of laudable achievements on many fronts like achieving the highest monthly generation of 641.02 million units during the month of August 2016, and highest daily generation of 20.86 million units on 17 June, 2016.

The surpassing of Declared Capacity by 110.10 per cent during May 2016, Kishore said, was highest in the country’s hydro power sector. Similarly, the achievement of 107.27 per cent of Plant Load Factor (PLF), achieved in July 2016, he added, was also the highest among the central and state sector power stations in the country.

Sanjeev Kishore attributes the achievements in front of power generation to the efficient machine and water management affected by engineers of the power station. Talking about the annual maintenance of the machines, he informed that inspection of all the machines had already been completed successfully between 4 to 5 days for each machine against the target of 10 days.

With a head of 138 meter, the machines, the Group General Manager told required a flow of 750 cumecs of water while presently the flow in river Satluj was about 118 cumecs (Cubic Meter per Second) on an average which is on an increasing trend with the onset of summer. As per requirement of the grid and schedules given by the Northern Region Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC), the power plant, he informed was presently being operated between 6.15 hrs to 7.45 hrs and 18.15 hrs to 20.30 hrs.

The 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station, Sanjeev Kishore informed, was the first hydro power venture of the country’s largest power producer NTPC Limited. He added that the Maharatna NTPC had crossed the mark of 50,000 MW and the installed capacity was 50,498 MW. The company, he told, was operating as many as 19 coal-based power stations 7 gas-based power stations and one hydro power station in the country. It has also launched as many as 10 renewable energy projects to harness solar energy with an aggregated capacity of 620 MW. The company is also operating 9 power plants under joint venture and subsidiaries, he said. NTPC has also ventured in the field of Wind Power generation as well as Solar Power generation in view of the government of India’s ambitious plan of promoting New & Renewable Sources of energy in the country.

The Koldam Hydro Power Plant, Sanjeev Kishore, informed, was meeting the energy needs of the northern region states viz, Himachal, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand, where power is being distributed as per the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with these states.

The state of Himachal Pradesh, Sanjeev Kishore added was also getting 13 per cent of power generated which includes 12 percent power as royalty and 1 percent for Local Area Development Fund.

Source : http://www.millenniumpost.in/business/ntpcs-800-mw-koldam-hydro-power-station-exceeds-all-generation-targets-234651

….unlearn over your long journey as an entrepreneur, as an industrialist, as a trainer and as someone who has always wanted to give back and share with society. I am delighted that you have chosen to come up with this guidebook, more so because I have gone through the entrepreneurial journey myself right from very young days when I was only 17 years old. And can, in some sense, understand where you come from when you share all your experiences. You were just mentioning about your radio manufacturing units, of course, you forgot to mention that it was hugely successful first. I still remember the Jetking Radio and then the Radio Kit was almost a household name in most parts of India.

And then, of course, technology probably overtook you, the advent of television, at that point of time radio took a beating and possibly the business didn’t do so well. But unless somebody falls, one can’t rise higher. So, in that sense, despite some setbacks that you had in the radio business or even in the TV manufacturing business, I am delighted that you persevered; you continued your entrepreneurial journey. You had that never-say-die spirit. You were willing to experiment. You were willing to look at newer options. And, suddenly, your Jetking School of Electronic Technology has played a very very important role as you just mentioned coming out with 700,000 students trained and skilled in different areas of electronics or electrical engineering. It’s truly a remarkable contribution to society.

And I am delighted that you have now chosen to also give people a tool in their hand, a ready guidebook, to help them be entrepreneurs. You very rightly pointed out Prime Minister Modi’s programme of encouraging job creators, not job seekers. And I think entrepreneurship is all about opportunities, it’s all about letting your mind explore new ideas, be willing to fail, willing to rise again from failure, willing to look at new ideas with an open mind. And I am sure, some of the thoughts that you have brought out in this book will help people in the future live their dreams, live the vision, live the mission of their lives.

In fact, in some sense, they say there is no more loyal friend than a book. And I am sure, this book that you brought out in a very quiet way will help your friends in their entrepreneurial journey. I am sure it will be a wise counselor for the people who are embarking on new ideas, embarking on the journey of entrepreneurial. And just like your own personality – very patient, very calm, very composed, very unassuming, quite unlike Nandu, of course, but just like your personality your book in a very very understated fashion speaks your own journey, speaks about your own experiences. And I am sure will help people navigate through the myriad problems that one faces when you are an entrepreneur.

In fact, somebody had once said that ‘I have not failed; I have just found 10,000 ways not to succeed.’ And in that sense, entrepreneurship is one dream or something which people with a lot of self-confidence and a lot of perseverance to succeed can only do. It’s not something that each and everyone can really embark on. I, of course, didn’t know you are so fluent and so good in Sanskrit, that’s a revelation today. I wish I could have learned Sanskrit that would have been great.

Your own journey of 40 years, I think has seen, seen it all. And it’s only when you experience things that you are able to share it with others. Your sharing of experiences and in a very nice way you have used a lot of pictures as they say pictures speak a thousand words. You have used a lot of quotes, a lot of graphs. The language is quite simple. I had an opportunity to glance through the book, it’s quite simple in its language, so easy for somebody who is probably just starting out of this journey. And, particularly, the start-stop continued tool that you have used at the end of each chapter, it will help the readers to pen down their own experiences, their own learnings, develop their own models how they want to proceed further in their entrepreneurial journey.

And I am sure these learning will hold entrepreneurs in good stead when they probably look at facing or confronting the real world. Of course, you were just now talking about various concepts from your book in some way. I thought I found the book broadly centered around 3 parts. One, you have talked about the mindset that is required to start a business. Second, you have looked at trying to advise people to find the right target market. And third, you have talked about scaling of business and business models. Of course, today, every business is about customers. Mahatma Gandhi had also said customer is king. And gradually, more and more people are understanding that no business can succeed unless your customer is happy, you have a satisfied customer base. We are in this hotel right now, hospitality is all about customer service. When you are doing your training programme, it’s all about your, the recipients of your training telling their friends, telling other people how good or useful it was.

You very rightly reminded me, I didn’t recall it immediately. Though my wife mentioned while we were driving in here that I have done a programme with you, I could not immediately recall it. But I remember now, it was probably soon after the 2004 election defeat when we were all yearning for new ideas, how to get back into success in politics.

In fact, in the government also we are trying to bring customer-centric management philosophy in the working of government. Because no organisation can be successful unless your customers are happy. In some sense, the public sector undertakings are also reorienting their business models to become more customer-focused, satisfy customer urges, satisfy customer tastes, satisfy customer preferences, provide services at an affordable price at which customers want to accept your service. After all, you can’t anymore pass on your inefficiencies to your customers.

I very often take the example, if two companies are producing water of bottled mineral water, if one is an efficient company and the other is not as efficient and, possibly, uses 20% more plastic in their bottle or skims money from the company and the cost of production is 10-15-20-30% more, uses more labour, for instance, wastes some energy. And the cost of production on that inefficient model, if it was to be 20% more, he can’t go to the customer and say, look, you know, I am an inefficient fellow, please pay me 20% more but help me make a profit. No customer is going to accept that. The public sector undertakings are also understanding this now. Entrepreneurs are competing on the basis of quality, both quality of product, quality of service.

And, therefore, I am delighted that you have focused on being customer centric when you are an entrepreneur. The mindset is clearly the basic foundation of an entrepreneur. As I said earlier, everybody can’t be an entrepreneur. You need that entrepreneurial vision, ability, the willingness to fail, willingness to take risks, the willingness to work that extra hour. Then there is no golf courses and there is no working hours, it’s a 24/7 on the job. In fact, in entrepreneurship one of the important things that you have also stressed about is problem solving. I think problem is a problem only until you have found the solution, and then it’s no more a problem.

At the India Today Conclave, only last week, Prime Minister Modi in his address had talked about the fact that only 2-3 years ago, India used to be a country perpetually starved of power, starved of coal and that was a problem before the nation. It’s no more a problem today, nobody talks about it, nobody worries about it. It’s got resolved. It was a deep problem, a serious problem. It’s no more a problem. A solution was found. It was resolved. Therefore, problem should not deter anybody in his entrepreneurial journey. A problem should not be something that holds us back in our work. And I must compliment you Sureshji and your family for your ability to bounce back, again and again and again.

In fact, one of the quotes that you have used in the book, I would like to share it with all the esteemed participants of this evening’s programme. Where you said, ‘give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I will move the world.’ Archimedes had probably said this. I hope I am pronouncing it right, I don’t know. Archimedes had spoken about the ability of an entrepreneur or of a thinker to move the world if he has the right tools. And entrepreneurship is all about the willingness to think big, the willingness to take big challenges, look at every problem, every crisis as an opportunity to do better.

And, of course, if I may share also with all of you one of the examples that Sureshji and Harsh have written about in the book, it’s the story of Bata. Many companies sent their market research people to India to study if there was a business opportunity in India to sell footwear. At that point of time, most Indians used to wear sandals, shoes was not in vogue in India. Most companies’ research people went back from India and said there is no market in India, nobody wears shoes, everybody seems to be wearing sandals. But the people who came to research for Bata went back and reported, my God, this is a huge market. Nobody wears shoes so look at the huge market opportunity that is there in India. We can sell shoes to almost everybody in the country. And you need that vision, that thinking, that out-of-the-box ability to look at an opportunity, find an opportunity where one thought none existed. That’s what true entrepreneurship is all about.

This government is also trying to promote entrepreneurship in every respect – the Startup India, Standup India programme, be it the Mudra Yojana where we are trying to give low-cost funds, make it easier for young entrepreneurs to, as you rightly said, become job generators, not job creators, not only job seekers. Almost 6 crore people have been given loan from as small as a small Rs 5,000-10,000 loan to a Rs 10 lakh loan to help entrepreneurs in their business. It could be just a goldsmith, it could be a carpenter, it could be a mason, it could be a hawker on the street, it could be a small retailer having a small corner shop. Different trades, different vocations, different service providers, getting these small loans helping them flourish in life.

I recently came across a small example, a lady who only two years ago had benefited from a Mudra loan of Rs 15,000 to get a sewing machine. I think her entrepreneurial spirit must have been somewhat like yours because she didn’t take that machine and start sewing clothes and become a tailor. She made a coaching centre around that sewing machine. She trained 15 other ladies and took a charge by which her entire loan got repaid out of the training of 15 ladies in the first 6 months, made 15 new entrepreneurs take a Mudra Loan and then brought them all together into a kind of a startup and started a tailoring activity, which I am told today supports some 30-40 people in less than 2 years. Starting from a single sewing machine, training people to become seamstresses, or tailors and, ultimately, making this a business model.

I must compliment that lady for her vision, not restricting herself to one tailor, one unit tailor shop or just doing tailoring and maybe earning a small amount of money, but to have the vision to put together a group of ladies and plan to become a larger than what she probably, originally, would have had the capacity to do. And that’s the spirit of India. That’s the spirit of young India. And I think that’s the spirit of New India that Prime Minister Modi articulated only a few days back. A New India, an emerging India, a powerful India, an India where the youth of this country aspire for a better quality of life, an India which is always at edge wanting more, as they say, यह दिल मांगे more. और आप उसी से मांगते हो जिससे आपको लगता है कि उसके पास कुछ देने की क्षमता है | आखिर भिखारी भी उसी के पास जाता है जिससे उसको लगता है कुछ मिलेगा | यह 7 लाख लोग जो आपके technology institute में आये वह इसीलिए ज़रूर आये होंगे उनको कुछ लगा होगा कि आपसे सीखके बाहर जायेंगे तो कुछ एक ज़िन्दगी अच्छी बना पाएंगे | शायद मैं भी आपके पास 2004 में इसी के लिए आया कि मुझे विश्वास था कि आपसे कुछ सीख पाउँगा| And I hope I am a good student. तो यह आज गुरु दक्षिणा देने आया हूँ|

So thank you very much for this opportunity to be amongst all of you. Thank you for the privilege of giving this book, the Entrepreneurs Guidebook with simple tools to enhance entrepreneurial journey of many more people in the days and years to come. It’s been a privilege and I wish you and your family well Sureshji. I wish your institute well, and I wish all the students who have come out of your institute and all those entrepreneurs who will read this book great success in their lives.

Thank you very much.