It Is India’s Century, Piyush Goyal Tells Stanford Students

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that “India means opportunities” and added that this is not just India’s decade, it is India’s century. The minister was interacting with the faculty and students of the Stanford Graduate School of Business in Sanfrancisco.

Goyal observed that the last few years have been well spent by India in creating the foundation in which the country can rapidly transform, grow its economy, improve its systems, engage with technology and learn from the best in the world. The Minister also stressed that India has been striving to ensure that every citizen of the country, every child born in the nation has a right to a good quality life and a bright future.

Referring to India’s exports which have already crossed USD 675 billion in the last fiscal, he said that the nation was now aspiring to take international trade to USD 2 Trillion by 2030 and added that by the time India would celebrate the 100^th anniversary of its independence it would be a USD 30 trillion economy. That is the kind of opportunity that India presents to the world. This is not just India’s decade, it is India’s century, he added.

Expressing his faith in the youth of India who are rapidly turning into entrepreneurs and startup champions, He said that India’s new education policy was giving a fillip to liberal education and looking at deeper collaborations with the best schools in the world.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi articulated his vision and his plans for India’s future based on some sound management principles. He cited the example of LED lighting revolution and explained that in 2014, the Prime Minister placed great focus on energy conservation to ensure sustainability, to reduce the burden of our investments into the power sector and to reduce energy bills of the common man and launched an LED lighting programme in 2015.

Goyal opined that the Prime Minister’s decision to withdraw the subsidy for purchase of the very expensive LED lamps was the defining moment in India’s bid to promote LED lighting. The government then engaged extensively with all the stakeholders, from importers to distributors to suppliers, successfully driving down the cost of an LED bulb by 85 per cent in the very first year of the programme, partly by bringing in economies of scale and partly by effectively solving some of the issues faced by suppliers.

He added that India had successfully used several management principles such as root cause analysis, innovative financing models, economies of scale to ensure the success of the LED lighting programme. It may be noted that India has been able to save around 80 million tonnes of CO2 emissions because of that programme. Goyal also added that India, which was once a net importer of LED lamps now has several manufacturers of high-quality LED lamps which is exported all over the world.

Highlighting the massive transformation brought about by a single programme, he said that India was now planning hundreds of such transformative programmes. Speaking of India’s Fintech success, the Minister said that nearly 40 per cent of all digital transactions were happening out of India today, with even small vendors accepting digital payments.

Speaking of the incredible opportunities offered by India to the world, Goyal invited the students of Stanford to engage with India and work with a billion plus people with great aspirations.