CII is an outstanding organisation with great leadership and a secretariat par excellence, commented Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways & Coal, Government of India, during the special plenary session at the Annual Session 2019, held from 4-5 April 2019 at New Delhi. CII plays a very important role as the interface between the government, the people, trade and business, and the industry, he added. 

Commenting on the state of the economy, the Minister said that India was considered part of ‘fragile five’ economy around 2013-14 but is now being talked about as the fastest-growing major economy. On the jobs front, he said that the nature of jobs is changing as more people are working on contractual basis and one should benchmark more on ‘livelihood creation’ compared to conventional jobs.

Listing major achievements of his ministry, Mr Goyal said that railways has been made free from politics and is being run as a professional entity. Rs. 6000 crore has been sanctioned for three aspirational districts of Uttar Pradesh. Railways have a target of making 6400 stations wi-fi enabled by 2nd September 2019 and have already completed 1500 stations. On coal he said India produced four times more coal in last five years compared to the previous five. He also said that twenty-four by seven power supply is a given now, which wasn’t the case earlier.

The session was moderated by Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman, CII Economic Affairs Council & Chairman, Feedback Infra Private Limited.