India in a sweet spot, need to run faster: Anil Agarwal

Anil Agarwal, Vedanta Resources Chairman

India is in a sweet spot with abundant natural resources, a thriving start-up culture, capital availability, and the government is moving in the right direction but needs to move only faster, billionaire Anil Agarwal told Moneycontrol.

“If we are running at 60 kilometres per hour, we must run at 90 kilometres,” said Vedanta Resources Chairman.

Agarwal spoke about the urgent need for India to work on energy security, by providing a level playing field to domestic oil and gas companies and opening up coal mining to accelerate production.

“This is an alarming situation, our energy security has to become a priority. There should be no discrimination between the government company and private company, and between importing from a foreign company and local companies who are producing. Ghar ki murgi daal barabar, aisa nahi hona chahiye,” he said, making a case for a cut, if not a complete waiver, from the cess on production from domestic oil blocks.

In a free-wheeling candid interview with Moneycontrol, Agarwal opened up about his journey so far, how Vedanta fights its many challenges, and his future plans.

He spoke about the delays in India’s divestment plans and suggested the government should look at corporatisation of companies. Read his full interview and full coverage on Moneycontrol on April 22.