India’s target is 1 billion tons of coal production, by 2019.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: India’s minister of state for power, coal, new & renewable energy, Piyush Goyal, addressed meets in Florida, New York, and Washington, this week.
Goyal kicked off his meet in Florida, before he came down to New York City, where he attended the United Nations Sustainable Energy for all (SE4ALL) conference, May 19-20.
In Washington, he chaired an investment round-table organized by the U.S. India Business Council (USIBC), and met with prominent members of the U.S. administration, including energy secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz and the US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. He also had a telephonic conversation with the US Trade Representative, Ambassador Michael Froman.
In his meets, Goyal spoke about the initiatives of his ministries, which included enhancing the target for production from renewable sources five-fold to 175 GW over the next seven years, doubling the total electricity production over the next seven years, creating a framework for private sector participation in coal mining and production, enabling investments worth $250 billion in the power sector – among the world’s largest investment opportunities in any country – and moving towards the ultimate target of 24×7 electricity for all by the year 2019.
“Since assuming office, our government has laid a very solid foundation for the ease of doing business in the country. India’s power generation capacity has grown significantly- we have seen 8.5% growth in power generation year over year. We aim to provide electricity to all Indians by 2019,” he said at the USIBC meet.
Gotal was feted by the Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP) in Tampa, Florida, at an event on May 17th, to mark the successful completion of one year of the BJP led NDA government in India, under prime minister Narendra Modi.
Some Indian Americans from Kerala accorded Goyal a traditional welcome by playing drums and a group of women in traditional attire showered flowers in his welcome, at the Tampa meet.
Chandrakanth Patel, National President – OFBJP (USA) highlighted the work done by Goyal in terms of transparency in E-auctioning of coal blocks, setting up new power plants in various states, and initiatives to harness solar energy.
Goyal, in his speech, talked about how he could cleanse the coal block allocations through a transparent and real time E-auction process that fetched the government Rs 189,000 crores by selling just 20 coal blocks and expected to reach Rs 300,000 crores when all the blocks are auctioned.
Goyal said that from 2010 to 2013, coal production grew by 31 million tons and in comparison, in just 10 months during his tenure, the production grew by 32 million tons, topping a total of 494 million tons. He has set a target of 1 billion tons by 2019.
Once this target is met and other projects initiated by his ministry are completed, India would have enough power to provide everyone 24×7 electricity – an important promise of the Modi government, Goyal reiterated.
Goyal emphasized that the goal of the Modi government is complete elimination of corruption and not just reduction in corruption. He said that the first year of the Modi government has been completely scam free, and the credit goes to Modi who had promised to the nation, “Na khaunga aur na khane dunga”.
Some of the OFBJP members who attended the meet included Brahm Aggrawal, President of Hindu University, Orlando; Nainan Desai, from HSS and HAF; Sudhir Shah, President, Gujarati Samaj of Tampa Bay and Satya Shaw, CEO of Satya Tax and Advisory.