File Photo: Union Energy Minister Piyush Goyal
The BJP-led government has laid a "solid foundation" for ease of doing business in India and is working hard to achieve its goal of keeping it corruption-free, Union Energy Minister Piyush Goyal has said.
"Since assuming office, our government has laid a very solid foundation for the ease of doing business in the country," he said on Thursday in a meeting with senior business executives from the energy sector organised by the US India Business Council (USIBC).
"India's power generation capacity has grown significantly. We have seen 8.5 per cent growth in power generation year over year. We aim to provide electricity to all Indians by 2019," Mr Goyal said at the USIBC event.
The programme was attended by senior executives from various business majors including Oracle, GE, 3M, and Westinghouse.
USIBC's Executive Vice-President, Diane Farrell said power is the backbone of any economy and vital to Prime Minister's 'Make in India' initiative.
"It is encouraging to see the tremendous strides being made by the sector to place India on a firm growth trajectory," she said.
Mr Goyal also spoke at another event organised by Overseas Friends of BJP-USA on Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.
Addressing Indian-Americans in Tampa, Florida, he claimed that the first year of the Modi government has been "completely scam-free".
The government is working hard to achieve its goal of a corruption-free India, he said.
He said the government has cleansed the coal block allocations through "a transparent and real-time e-auction process that fetched the government Rs 1,89,000 crore by selling just 20 coal blocks and expected to reach Rs 3,00,000 crore when all the blocks are auctioned."
He claimed that from 2010 to 2013, the coal production grew by 31 million tonnes and in comparison just in 10 months during his tenure, the production grew by 32 million tonnes topping a total of 494 million tonnes.
Mr Goyal said he has set a target of one billion tonnes by 2019.
Once this target is met and other projects initiated by his ministry are completed, India would have enough power to provide everyone 24x7 electricity, an important promise of the Modi government, he said.
On the occasion, Goyal inaugurated a website (www.dreamindianetwork.com), designed to bring experts and well-accomplished Indian-origin persons onto one platform to share knowledge and experience and help in India's development.