San Francisco: Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal today said that ‘India’ meant ‘opportunities’ and added that this is not just India’s decade, it is India’s century.
He was interacting with the faculty and students of the Stanford Graduate School of Business in San Francisco today.
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, and every child born in the nation has a right to a good quality of 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 100th anniversary of its independence it would be a USD 30 trillion economy.
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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, Goyal 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.
Goyal opined that the Prime Minister’s decision to withdraw the subsidy for the 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% in the very first year of the program, partly by bringing in economies of scale and partly by effectively solving some of the issues faced by suppliers, he said.
He added that India had successfully used several management principles such as root cause analysis, innovative financing models, economies of scale etc to ensure the success of the LED lighting program.
It may be noted that India has been able to save around 80 million tonnes of CO2 emissions because of that program.
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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 program, Goyal said that India was now planning hundreds of such transformative programs.
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.