Union minister for power, coal, mines, new and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal urges industry leaders to contribute ideas on how the industry and government can collaborate to spur growth.
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#PiyushGoyal #LeadingEdge2017 #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
To know more about Outlook Business Leading Edge 2017, log onto leadingedge.outlookbusiness.com or follow #leadingedge2017 on Twitter and Facebook
Music: www.bensound.com
#PiyushGoyal #LeadingEdge2017 #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Mr. Rajan Reheja, congratulations to you and your entire team on the 10th anniversary.
00:12 Miss Mahalakshmi, the editor of Outlook Business. Mr. Indranil Roy, Vedanathan, you're talking
00:21 about e-voting. I thought you forgot to mention about e-voting. India was one of the first
00:26 few countries to start e-voting. And I do hope all of you have voted before you came
00:32 here. Otherwise, I would urge the organizers to allow a few people to go and vote and come
00:37 back. A lot of good friends over here, a lot of colleagues, Miss Arundhati Bhattacharya,
00:44 Mr. Niranjan Hiranandani, Mr. Ravi Upal, Bharat Puri, Pawan Goenkar, Ranjeet. Actually, I
00:52 know Supraladbhai is here. I know so many people here. And that's why it's something
00:56 like coming back home, coming back to your own city. And therefore, also a delight that
01:03 our very own Outlook Business completes 10 years today. My compliments to the entire
01:09 team there, the management team, the editorial team, ladies and gentlemen. Subject is very
01:15 interesting when you're trying to juxtapose working of government or politics, working
01:23 of business enterprises, and possibly also a magazine. To my mind, there's not so much
01:31 difference in the principles behind the working of any of these organizations. Certainly,
01:38 things have changed very. Mr. Bill Gates came and addressed us on transformative ideas to
01:47 how what India should look at in the days ahead. And one of the things he raised is
01:53 that with the advent of fourth generation of technology, the nature of work is going
01:59 to change across the board. We are not going to have the same kind of work that was going
02:03 on maybe a few years ago as we move along the technological ladder. And in that sense,
02:14 as Charles Kettering had said, the world hates change, yet it is the only thing that can
02:20 bring progress. And therefore, all of us in our own way are continuously evolving and
02:27 moving our own business models, moving what we are doing, changing the way we work. And
02:35 really, progress is impossible without change. And those who cannot change their mind really
02:41 cannot change anything. And therefore, when we got this opportunity to be in government,
02:51 very clearly we realized that unless we change the way things used to happen or the way things
02:58 were happening over many years, we cannot bring about a transformation in India. And
03:05 therefore, disruption had to be the order of the day. And that disruption is only possible
03:11 if we have certain sound principles around which we run the government. I remember one
03:17 of the biggest angst that most people had before Prime Minister Modi took charge was
03:25 about uncertainty, about the fact that government was almost in a form of policy paralysis.
03:33 And therefore, one of the first and most important elements was that the country needed decisive
03:39 leadership. I think Prime Minister Modi has redeemed himself well to some people. In fact,
03:45 that sounds too decisive. But for any organization to succeed, you need a leader who's willing
03:52 to take bold decisions, who's willing to really be right there in the front, lead from the
03:58 front. And I was just sharing with Ms. Bhattacharya, Mr. Rajan Raija just mentioned to me that,
04:06 look, if you really want to move the engine of the economy, we need to work on NPA resolution.
04:12 And I was sharing with Ms. Bhattacharya that only last week, we had a very, very detailed
04:18 analysis on what needs to be done to solve that problem and address that challenge in
04:25 a holistic manner where Prime Minister was again leading from the front. And that's the
04:29 kind of leadership that Prime Minister Modi has been able to bring to fore. He's been
04:35 able to look at a root cause of what are the issues before the government, before policymakers.
04:45 What is the cause of the problem? What is the cause of this situation? And after a root
04:50 cause analysis, really prioritize what needs to be done to address those problems. In fact,
04:58 one major element in the working of this government has been working with great degree of transparency.
05:05 We have tried to focus on all our actions to see how transparency can be brought to
05:12 fore. More and more engagement with the people, more and more sharing of information with
05:18 the people so that they are empowered with data. People know what's happening. Everybody
05:25 has an equal opportunity to participate in whatever is happening. And with that equal
05:31 opportunity, also you are able to reduce the discretion that used to be the order of the
05:37 day once upon a time. I still remember when the 204 coal blocks got cancelled. Almost
05:47 overnight I was stranded with the challenge of addressing the coal shortages. And when
05:53 we came out with the new framework under which auctions would be the order of the day, and
05:58 it's starting from coal, but ultimately every natural resource, every national asset can
06:04 now only be given out through a transparent auction process. But when we formed the final
06:10 legal framework under which we would do it, I remember on a Sunday afternoon flying down
06:15 from Mumbai to Delhi, I reached there in the afternoon about four o'clock. And then till
06:20 midnight we sat in the coal ministry, pouring over the entire framework, the law, the rules
06:27 to see that there should be no discretion left. So that even if the Honorable Prime
06:33 Minister tells me that I need to favour maybe Pawan Goenka, I cannot do it. There should
06:40 be absolutely no discretion left in the framework. And that's the kind of effort that we have
06:45 done over the last two and a half, three years. Of course, in my own area of work, I've tried
06:52 to introduce innovative financing models where that could help us implement programs to large
07:00 scale, implement them effectively, more efficiently, so that results can be faster felt by the
07:07 people of India. I've often repeated the story of the LED bulbs. If some of you have heard
07:16 it, please pardon me for being repetitive. But I do believe that's one program that encompasses
07:23 all the principles around which this government has worked. And within that also demonstrates
07:30 what potential, what game changing potential we have in India as a large market, as a big
07:36 business opportunity. In fact, before our government came in, the country was barely
07:44 having a 0.2% share of the world LED market. The government had a company called Energy
07:51 Efficiency Services Limited, which used to purchase these seven watt LED bulbs for about
07:58 four and a half dollars, 310 Indian rupees. They would give a subsidy on that and then
08:05 sell it to the consumers. In the year 2013-14, they had sold 600,000, six lakh LED bulbs
08:14 in the entire year. When we looked at that program, we realized the potential that that
08:20 program has to bring down carbon emissions by about 80 million tons a year. If you replace
08:27 all the bulbs in the country, the incandescent old bulbs that we used to use with LED bulbs,
08:34 there was a potential saving of 80 million tons of carbon dioxide. There was a saving
08:41 of about six and a half billion dollars annually on consumers' electricity bills, and it would
08:48 bring down the consumption of electricity by about 112 billion units. That's almost
08:55 10% of India's current consumption. And you will appreciate that the level of prosperity
09:02 that large parts of India has, lighting is the main usage of electricity. But at the
09:10 speed at which it was going, it could never have any game-changing impact. And if the
09:14 project was to be based on subsidies, we could never scale it up to large levels. And we
09:20 decided to do away with the subsidy. We decided to scale up the program so that we could replace
09:27 770 million old bulbs with LED bulbs by 2019. And we did hope that we'll be able to bring
09:39 down prices with technological upgradation, with honesty in our procurement. The entire
09:44 procurement process is most transparent through, again, your e-bidding and e-auction, to take
09:52 a leap from where these statements. We improved on the financing pattern. Earlier, the government
09:59 used to buy these bulbs and would pay over five years, saying that we want to make sure
10:04 the bulb works for five years. And when I sat down with the industry participants, I
10:10 realized that 60 rupees out of that 310 only reflected the additional cost and the risk
10:17 element that the suppliers were factoring in for payment coming in five years. We were
10:24 able to scale up that program and I'm delighted to share with you today, as again, 600,000
10:31 bulbs in the year 2013-14. That same government company, it's a government company, mind you,
10:37 working in all the constraints of the government framework, is selling 600,000 LED bulbs of
10:44 nine watts now every day. 600,000 every day. It's only two years since we launched that
10:54 program. First, May 2015, I remember the first bulbs being sold. And the procurement price
11:00 of 310 plus taxes has come down in our most recent procurement. And now we don't procure
11:08 a seven watt bulb, but a nine watt bulb, 30% more lumination. The price is only 38 rupees,
11:16 88% reduction. But the suppliers don't have to come to any minister or any secretary.
11:24 All bidding is transparent. All tenders are issued through the net. All bids are introduced
11:32 in the net, transparently released. All bids are announced in the public domain, without
11:37 the name of the bidder, of course. Payment is on the 30th day. You don't have to ever
11:44 go to anybody for payment. 100% payment on the 30th day through the RTGS. Again, e-payment.
11:54 And we take a bank guarantee for ensuring the quality of the product. The quality checks
12:01 are more strict. In fact, Secretary Moniz, the erstwhile Secretary of Energy in the United
12:06 States, went all over the world showing the Indian specs and this Indian program as being
12:11 the most robust energy efficient program anywhere in the country. And today, India's share is
12:17 nearly 16% of the total LED sale in the world, from 0.2 to 16%. And this one government company,
12:30 and maybe Outlook Business could do a case study on that, in terms of its ramp up of
12:35 operations, has sold 210 million bulbs in the last 22 months. 210 million bulbs. The
12:47 private sector, of course, has also benefited. So if you open television, I think you see
12:51 more Cisca LED ads than any other ad. In fact, I was very surprised. There's nobody from
12:56 my sector in your whole partnerships here. Whereas every program these days, I find there's
13:02 a lot of solar suppliers and LED suppliers. The point I was trying to make, ladies and
13:09 gentlemen, was this is an outcome oriented government. Every action has to have a defined
13:14 outcome. Every action has to be closely monitored. And I'll share with you the way we've groomed
13:22 ourselves or the way we also learn from the experiences of our leaders. Pardon me for
13:29 being anecdotal, but I think it helps you understand the mind behind the leadership
13:35 or the mind behind the government. This program had just got launched in 2015, early 2015.
13:45 And I was having a meeting with the Honorable Prime Minister on the progress of the coal
13:49 block auctions. So I'd gone to his home one day early morning. I was telling him what's
13:54 happened, how many blocks are auctioned, what prices we've got. Well prepared with all my
13:59 data and everything. Arun Duttyji knows I'm always full of data and statistics. And at
14:06 the end of the conversation, I was just about to get up and he says, "Piyush, how many
14:11 bulbs have been sold for LED?" I was foxed absolutely. I didn't have any clue at all.
14:18 What was the progress? How many LED bulbs? It's the smallest of my actions in the entire
14:24 ministry under me. In fact, for the first three or four months, Rajanji, I didn't even
14:29 know that this department reports to me. I became a minister in May 2014. It was only
14:34 in August that I got a cabinet note on energy efficiency. I said, "What have I got to do
14:39 with this subject?" He said, "No, no, there's a whole Bureau of Energy Efficiency under
14:43 you." That's the first time I came to know in August 14 that this department reports
14:47 to me. And he's asking me how many LED bulbs and I had no clue about it. I said, "Sir,
14:52 I'll check and let you know." He said, "Piyush, this won't work. I'm sorry for the gentleman
14:59 from out of the country, but I'll translate it." I was just using Hindi to reflect on
15:05 you his angst or his, let's say, concern when he said it to me. "Piyush, this won't work.
15:13 Work doesn't get implemented like this." He said, "Unless you're going to monitor what's
15:20 happening religiously and unless you hold people accountable for what they are doing,
15:28 you'll never be successful in getting outcomes out of your work." And I remember I came back
15:35 to my office that day. I got my whole young team together and Pawan knows, Arundhati,
15:40 some of you who have interacted with my team know that I have a lot of young boys working
15:45 with me. We got that whole team together and in one week, they prepared a mobile app and
15:53 I'm just showing it to you so that to reflect on you how transparency and how open government
15:59 can help. This gives you a real-time data of how many LED bulbs are sold every minute.
16:07 It updates itself every minute. It's the Ujala site, U-J-A-L-A, Ujala as in light. And as
16:14 we speak right now, 212,148,109 LED bulbs that EESL has sold. This is not the whole
16:24 industry. The rest of the private industry figure is also and the number is changing
16:28 as we speak. So it's one minute has got over. And on this side, it's public. Any of you
16:35 can load it free of charge. On this side, you can actually go to your state, go to your
16:43 city and within that city, you can ask for the addresses of wherever these LED bulbs
16:49 are available by EESL. And if you touch the address which you think is closest to you,
16:57 it takes you on Google map and directs you to the entire journey and the time it will
17:02 take you to reach that kiosk where you can buy the LED bulb. That's the thinking which
17:10 has helped us to introduce probably business management practices in government, implement
17:17 our projects to scale, work with the state governments and other stakeholders in partnership.
17:24 All of this could not have been possible unless I got all the stakeholders on board. After
17:29 all, I can only sell this through the states and the discoms. I can only bring down prices
17:34 by talking to the suppliers of these bulbs. So it's been a complete partnership of all
17:40 stakeholders truly reflecting the spirit of cooperative federalism, which has helped us
17:46 do these kind of game changing and transformational initiatives. Along the line, time bound execution
17:54 has been a credo of this government that whatever we take up to do in a certain time frame,
17:59 we focus on getting it done. I'll share another very recent example. On the 17th, we were
18:05 doing this meeting about which I just mentioned. At the end of the meeting, over a cup of tea,
18:10 I just mentioned that we need to have a similar focus on electric vehicles. This happened
18:17 on the 17th. We wound up at about 2.15. So 2.15 in the afternoon. I just happened to
18:23 mention that we need to have a similar focused approach on what we will do on the electric
18:29 vehicles. And I'm sorry, I'm picking up from where you left. The E has become the focus
18:35 of my talk, though it was not what I had planned. But I said we must look at electric vehicles
18:40 also more holistically and move it out of the framework where today, when I go to buy
18:46 a hybrid car, I get an 80,000 rupee subsidy, or I buy an electric car, maybe a lakh and
18:51 a half or whatever. That is only a constraint to the success of this project. We can't scale
18:57 it up. Then we know we have a thousand crores. So so many cars is the maximum we can do.
19:02 So I just said, we need to have a brainstorming to address this issue. You won't believe it,
19:08 ladies and gentlemen, 17th evening, my office had a notice from the Prime Minister's office
19:14 that on 23rd of this month, you have to make a presentation before the Honorable Finance
19:19 Minister and three other ministers to discuss about electric vehicles. That is responsive
19:25 government. That is a government which is willing to take on aggressive targets, take
19:30 on game changing and innovative new projects, take on projects which have a dimension which
19:37 goes far beyond a current benefit or a political benefit. After all, these electric vehicles
19:43 are not going to give me any political dividend in the elections going on, or even in the
19:48 2019 election for that matter. But it will be a game changing program for India in terms
19:54 of our reliance on imports for oil and petroleum products, in terms of leading the world in
20:02 our fight against climate change as a responsible global citizen, in terms of in the long run,
20:09 bringing down costs of transportation, because I'm personally convinced electric vehicles
20:13 are going to bring down significantly the cost of transportation. I don't know if Tata's
20:19 will be very happy about that unless Tata's is also willing to evolve into electric vehicles,
20:24 Mr. Upal. But the bigger idea is that this country is full of opportunities, full of
20:36 new ideas that the youth of India have, that younger people are brimming with. The question
20:45 is, are we willing to think out of the box? Are we willing to look at government just
20:50 like we would look at any other business enterprise? Are we determined to make a difference to
20:58 the lives of our people? Are we willing to reinvent the way things have been done for
21:04 maybe seven decades of independence? Are we willing to redesign our lifestyles around
21:11 a more responsive citizenship or a more responsive citizenry? Are we willing to reform the way
21:20 governments work, the way businesses work? And demonetization in some sense was one step
21:28 towards that reform we are looking for in this country, moving the informal economy
21:32 into the formal economy, bringing down tax evasion which instead of becoming a norm should
21:38 become an exception and making more and more people responsive towards paying their taxes
21:44 honestly. And are we willing to restore India to that old glory which many of our older
21:52 generation people often talk about, that Sone ki Chidiya that India was once upon a time
21:59 and that each one of us in this room desires to see India as. Thank you very much ladies
22:03 and gentlemen.
22:04 [Music]