Power minister woos investors in US; meets PE giants Blackstone, Warburg

Piyush Goyal expressed hope that given the prediction of a good monsoon this year, India may see double digit growth by end of this financial year.

Wooing global investors, including private equity giants such as Blackstone and Warburg Pincus, Power Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted the initiatives taken by the government to make India more business friendly.

He assured them that the government is taking all steps that are necessary to sustain the current economic growth in India and it will continue with all major initiatives to enhance the ease of doing business.

According to the Power Ministry, he also highlighted the need of India to have low cost, long tenor finance for his ambitious renewable energy scale of and requested investors to look at India for investments and take advantage of three Ds -- democracy, demography and demand.

Goyal held meetings with the Blackstone Group Co-founder, chief executive officer and Chairman Stephen Schwarzian; Warburg Pincus' Saurabh Agarwal; New York Green Bank President Alfred Griffin; Chairman of Energy and Finance, Office of Governor of New York, Richard Kauffman and Big Belly CEO Jack Kutner on Thursday.

The minister, who also holds the portfolio of Renewable Energy and Coal, is vising the US to participate in the launch of programmes under International Solar Alliance on Friday at the United Nations.

He expressed hope that given the prediction of a good monsoon this year, India may see double digit growth by end of 2016-17 financial year itself.

Goyal briefed the business delegations and investors on various steps undertaken by the government to improve energy access, rapid scale up of renewable energy, enhancing grid reliability, integration of renewable in the grid and the massive opportunity presented by the untapped demand in the Indian market.

He outlined the steps being taken to improve the contractual/counter-party risk framework, that is critical to all investors.

He also informed about the initiatives such as greening the grid, National Solar Mission, LED programme for enhancing energy efficiency.

Speaking on the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana, Goyal stressed upon the steps being taken to bring a drastic change in India's power sector that can take India to double digit growth trajectory in the economy.

He also mentioned that India already has surplus power and demand stimulation through UDAY coupled with the growth in the Indian economy will quadruple electricity consumption by 2030.

Image: Power Minister Piyush Goyal is vising the US to participate in the launch of programmes under International Solar Alliance on Friday at the United Nations. Photograph: Paresh Gandhi/Rediff.com