Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Highlights: What Power Minister RK Singh wants from interim budget

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Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: ‘Every country thinks about its consumers’

Every country thinks about its consumers, says Power Minister RK Singh. Reminds when gas supplies got disrupted from the Soviet Union, Germany and the UK had started using thermal energy. “Suddenly the talk was about energy security,” he adds.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: RK Singh on projections on solar capacity additions

Manufacturing capacity of thermal power plant related parts and equipment such as boilers needs to be increased in India, says Power Minister RK Singh.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: RK Singh on whether Power Ministry is prepared to meet peak demand

“We have the capacity. The problem is not with solar hours, it is the non-solar hours. Initially there was a feeling to not add more coal-fired power because renewables are coming. However, energy storage costs are very high and we need to keep electricity tariffs affordable. Besides, we cannot afford to have shortage of electricity because that is a marker of growth.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Here’s what the Power Minister wants from interim budget

I want more finance, more incentives for green hydrogen from the interim budget. But that’s between Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and me, says Power Minister RK Singh.

If the Modi government comes back to power, the Power Ministry’s focus would be on capacity expansion and bringing down losses from 15 percent to 10 percent, he adds.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: No market growing as fast as India, says Power Minister RK Singh

-- There is no other market growing as fast as India and no other market that offers ease of business as we do. The share prices of all power PSUs have increased, says RK Singh

-- Outstanding dues of gencos have been brought down from Rs 1.5 lakh crore to about Rs 51,000 crore, he adds

-- If power demand goes up then the country is growing and will continue to grow for the next three decades… Building capacity and bringing down losses will be the top priority, he further says

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Will double hydro capacity to about 90,000 MW: RK Singh

Our rate of capacity expansion for renewable energy has been the fastest in the world. We are not only adding capacity but transforming by exploring green energy.

Will double hydro capacity to about 90,000 MW. 87,000 MW (87 GW) of thermal capacity will be added by 2030.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: We connected 29 million homes in 19 months, says Power Minister RK Singh

We have emerged as a country that has ensured universal access. We connected 29 million homes in 19 months which the IEA calls the largest programme of electrification. We have the largest single integrated national grid in the world. From 2014, the power demand has gone up by 80 percent.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: India at forefront of energy transition, says Power Minister RK Singh

-- India has emerged as the country that has been at the forefront of energy transition.

-- The national average of electricity supply in rural areas is 21 hours and about 23 hours in urban areas.

-- Our rate of capacity expansion for renewable energy has been the fastest in the world.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: No country can develop without sufficient electricity, says RK Singh

Power minister RK Singh takes the stage at MC Policy Next on securing India’s energy future. He says, “No country can develop if it does not have sufficient electricity.”

“One distinct feature separating developed and developing countries is that power does not go off. No country can be developed without electricity. I believe electricity is the most important infrastructure which is a marker of development,” says RK Singh

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Former CBIC Member V Rama Mathew on the GST regime

-- Did not expect GST to stabilise so quickly

-- Challenges in GST are multiplicity of slabs, and in rate rationalisation

-- With the GST, we now need to address the details that will make lives easier. Certain specific issues have to be addressed as any contradictions that may have crept in are addressed.

-- Unfortunately, the GST rate rationalisation committee has not submitted its report as it's a massive exercise.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: GST is a work in progress, brought in transparency, says Pratik Jain

Price Waterhouse Partner Pratik Jain says: “There is no doubt that the GST is a work in progress. But a reform of this scale has to be a work in progress at this stage…. The GST has brought in structural simplicity and transparency. What's needed now is certainty.... Looking back, six and a half years on from the GST's rollout, it has been much better than what we thought it would be.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: ‘SMEs wanting to be tax compliant shouldn’t have to run to experts’

Lakshmikumaran & Sreedharan Founder and Managing Partner V Lakshmikumaran: We need a mechanism so that a small and medium enterprise wanting to be tax compliant do not need to run to experts to understand the GST law. The government should come with a lot of FAQs.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: BJP Spokesperson Shazia Ilmi on gender pay gap

“This may be contentious, but the gender pay gap is not a fight between men and women. Eliminating the gender pay gap is something men and women have to fight for together,” says Shazia Ilmi.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: BJP Spokesperson Shazia Ilmi speaks on women in politics

-- Women are a huge voter base and more and more political parties are becoming aware of that.

-- There was a time when women in the Rajya Sabha were there because of their father's, husbands, fathers-in-law. That is changing now.

-- We often saw even though face of power is a woman, but repository of power is a man. We need to ensure this does not happen in the 30 percent reservation.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Supreme Court lawyer Bansuri Swaraj on women in legal profession

Social and economic conditions were not conducive for women to enter the legal space. However, the landscape is now changing; as much as 50 percent of law students are currently women.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: She Capital founder on ‘women empowerment’

Anisha Singh, Founder, She Capital, says: “Women are powered, empowerment should be taken out of dictionary… For the longest time, I heard behind closed doors 'Why do you want to invest in women? They have catfights'.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: NIPFP Professor Lekha Chakraborty on gender parity

NIPFP Professor Lekha Chakraborty, says “If women can't network after sunset, it's a public policy failure.”

She adds, “Providing clean fuel is one way how the gender lens can become part of the energy policy. Women should not have lower life expectancy just because they are cooking food for their family.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: RK Singh on food inflation

I have no number when it comes to a comfortable level for food inflation. Year-on-year price changes are incorrect way of representing price changes. We should look at the changes on a month to month basis.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Mandatory item review checks for e-com websites soon

Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh says, “From next month, we are going to make it mandatory for e-commerce websites to have systems to check their item review methods.”

He adds: “We are going to come up with guidelines in a fortnight on greenwashing. Consumers are willing to pay a premium on goods that are said to be 'green'. But companies should not fool them by saying a good is 'green' when it's not.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Retail market interventions work better than wholesale market ones, says RK Singh

Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh: We have realised that retail market interventions work much better than wholesale market intervention. A good middle ground is a hybrid of the two types of interventions.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Consumer Affairs Secretary RK Singh on pulse imports

Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh says: “We are already self-sufficient when it comes to pulses in aggregate. But within pulses that is not the case. Which is why we import some pulses from countries such as Myanmar. We are also in talks with Brazil and Argentina about pulses imports so that we can diversify our sources and we aren't dependent on just one geography.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Consumer Affairs Secretary on monitoring food prices

Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh says, “With our interventions, we have been able to nudge the market prices for food commodities in the right direction. It's not always about supply and demand. There is a lot of messaging and nudging involved.”

“We need to act promptly when it comes to intervening in the market; the various levels of committees can act quickly to get this done,” he adds.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Monitoring prices nationally humongous task, says Consumer Affairs Secy

Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh: Monitoring prices nationally is a humongous task. Every day in the evening I get information from 550 centres across India on prices of 22 food commodities. We have lots of checks and balances to ensure the reporting of the price data is accurate.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: RBI to maintain status quo on interest rates unless inflation stabilises, says Pant

India Ratings Chief Economist Devendra Pant: I believe until RBI sees inflation being stable at 4 percent, I see them keeping a status quo on interest rates

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Swadeshi Jagran Manch's Ashwani Mahajan on India’s capex, GDP growth & inflation

-- There is a lot of scope for increasing capex, and the government has been doing that despite the fallout of a pandemic

-- We should not worry about inflation because it has been curbed to a large extent. India is in a more comfortable position vis-a-vis inflation

-- I feel GDP growth next fiscal will be higher than FY24

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg on India capex, fiscal deficit and more

Former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg said he expects India's capital expenditure to increase in the next Budget.

Garg added that India’s debt-to-GDP ratio is not likely to come down anytime soon to 60 percent as per the FRBM mandate.

Commenting on the fiscal deficit target of the Government of India, he said: “To get to 4.5 percent by FY26 is looking difficult. Will be tough for the government to contain fiscal deficit aim to less than 5.5 percent for next fiscal year.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: 'Inflation will always be biggest risk, govt policies are the game changer'

India Ratings Chief Economist Devendra Pant says agri wages are not keeping pace with inflation and adds that “inflation was, is and will always be the biggest risk”. However, the game changer is what kind of policies the government can roll out to keep a lid on inflation, he adds.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Government on right track on economic policies, says Ashwini Mahajan

The government is on the right track on economic policies. This government started with Make in India, but it did not work in the first few years. But then we raised tariffs on some items and then as a result we have seen an increase in say in India's mobile phone exports, says Swadeshi Jagran Manch's Ashwani Mahajan.

Mahajan adds, “I believe India will get into semiconductor manufacturing soon; Don't see any problem in India becoming a $20 trillion economy in the next 20 years.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Icra chief economist on Indian economy

ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar says, “Generally very optimistic about Indian economy. See GDP growth for next year to depend on the monsoon. Even this year we are seeing a fallout of uneven monsoon impacting the agri sector. See 6.2 percent GDP growth FY25. We could do better if the monsoon is even, geopolitical tensions ease and commodity prices stay muted.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: India is a shining star, says economist

India Ratings Chief Economist Devendra Pant: “Across the globe, India is a shining star. The next fiscal year India is likely to see a lower GDP growth.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Labourers aren't having a good time, says former finance secy

Former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg says: “Income of labours have not gone up despite rise in corporate profits. Businesses are having a good time, but labourers aren't having a good time.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: This govt has never been populist, says Ashwani Mahajan

Swadeshi Jagran Manch's Ashwani Mahajan says: “This government has never been a populist government.”

“The central government schemes can't be called populist. I feel this year fiscal deficit is going to be less than the projected 5.9 percent aim FY24,” Mahajan adds.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar on upcoming interim budget

ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar says: “This is an interesting pre-election year. Last year we had a headline grabbing budget with the record capex target.”

“Gross tax revenues will exceed the Budget target FY24. Fiscal deficit target does not seem to be under threat. Fiscal aim could end at 6 percent vs budgeted 5.9 percent.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Jayant Sinha expects India’s GDP growth to cross 7%

“I think India's GDP growth will cross 7% in 2024,” says Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance Jayant Sinha, while delivering his keynote speech.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Jayant Sinha on govt policies

“I am sure the government is receiving feedback on policies such as the PLI and is constantly improving them,” says Jayant Sinha.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Jayant Sinha cautions about risks of deep fakes

Jayant Sinha says, “The BJP uses cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence... But we also have to be watchful about the risks such as deep fakes.”

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Jayant Sinha on geopolitical factors affecting India

--Geopolitical factors are always going to be a risk as they are for everyone else in the world.
--Some geopolitical risks have some downside but also upside risks for India as the world looks to strengthen supply chains.
--It's a risky and uncertain world. And in such a world, having a robust and resilient economy is the best protection we can have. And the government is committed to that.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Jayant Sinha bets on $12 trillion of wealth creation as listed stocks in next 20 years

--India will see wealth creation of 12 trillion dollars, four times more than the last 20 years, in terms of listed securities in the next 20 years: Jayant Sinha

--As we get ready for Modinomics 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0, we are going to see wealth benefits for everyone in India: Jayant Sinha

-- Our economy will grow from 4 trillion dollar to 15-20 dollar by 2047: Jayant Sinha

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Jayant Sinha lists out four major drivers of Modinomics

Digitisation, Decarbonisation, Innovation, Urbanisation -- major drivers of Modinomics, says Jayant Sinha

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Jayant Sinha on GST implementation

--The GST has been an incredible game changer and streamlined out taxes: Jayant Sinha, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance

--We introduced the most expansive indirect tax system through GST: Jayant Sinha

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit Live: Important to understand how Modinomics 3.0 will build, says Jayant Sinha

--The first step of Modinomics was to strengthen the economy and then make it resilient. The next step is going to be about global leadership: Sinha

--GST, IBC, DBT, SBA, Ayushman Bharat describe the pillars of policy making in Modinomics 1.0: Sinha

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit: About the event

In the dynamic landscape of India's economic trajectory, Moneycontrol Policy Next - "India's 10 Trillion Dollar Run," is a visionary initiative that seeks to unravel the intricate threads of policies shaping the nation's financial course. With a commitment to providing credible insights, this platform is a beacon for in-depth discussions on pivotal policies that significantly impact the economic contours of India. Striving for nuanced analyses without rhetoric or agenda, the series delves into critical issues that matter, offering a comprehensive understanding of the policies steering the nation towards a 10 Trillion Dollar future.

Join us in this illuminating journey as we bring together key policymakers, thought leaders, and stakeholders to decode, discuss, and envision the path forward for India's monumental economic stride.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit: Welcome address to begin shortly

The welcome address is set to begin in another 15 minutes, followed by the keynote address by Jayant Sinha on ‘Modinomics-3.0’.

Moneycontrol Policy Next Summit: First panel discussion will be on interim budget

With the interim Budget on February 1, the first panel discussion at the Policy Next summit will be on ‘Macro story, interim Budget and beyond’. The session will see experts discuss expectations from the upcoming interim Budget, macroeconomic outlook among other things.

Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at ICRA Ltd, Devendra Kumar Pant Chief Economist at India Ratings and Research, Dr Ashwani Mahajan, National Co-Convener at Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Subhash Chandra Garg, Former Finance Secretary, GOI will be the speakers at the panel discussion. Gaurav Choudhury, Consulting Editor, Moneycontrol will moderate the panel discussion.

Moneycontrol Policy Next summit: Consumer Affairs Secretary to discuss how India managed food inflation

Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, will discuss with Moneycontrol’s Shweta Punj how India has managed food inflation. Singh, a 1989-batch IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre, has served as the Consumer Affairs Secretary since December 31, 2021.

He holds an Electrical Engineering degree from IIT, BHU, and a Master's in Computer Engineering from Clarkson University, US. Singh also earned a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University, where he was recognised as a Lucius N. Littaeur Fellow in 2004.

The discussion is timely given the food inflation concerns among policymakers. At the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) Summit at Davos, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das noted that food inflation is on top of the central bank's agenda.

Moneycontrol Policy Next summit: Summit to explore policies that can help India achieve ‘$10 trillion economy’ dreams

With its flagship Policy Next Summit, Moneycontrol, India’s leading financial news platform, deep dives into a broad range of high-powered policy conversations of national and international significance with India’s leading think tanks, policymakers, industry leaders, and academia.

The Moneycontrol Policy Next summit on January 18 will explore what more can be done at the policy level to achieve the country’s vision of a ‘$10 trillion economy,’ with leading voices across fields putting forth their opinions.

The summit is being held when India is expected to see both momentous and exciting times as it gears up for an interim Budget and general elections in the coming months.

Moneycontrol Policy Next summit: RK Singh, Jayant Sinha to deliver keynote addresses

Jayant Sinha, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and Member of Lok Sabha, will deliver the keynote address on ‘Modinomincs 3.0’ at the Policy Next Summit, followed by a fireside chat with Shweta Punj, Deputy Editor at Moneycontrol.

Raj Kumar Singh, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, will deliver a keynote address on securing India’s energy future. The keynote address will be followed by a fireside chat with Nalin Mehta, Managing Editor of Moneycontrol.

Moneycontrol Policy Next summit: Comprehensive overview of Speakers and Agenda for the event

Moneycontrol Policy Next summit Live: GST- A reform half done?

The panel will assess past efforts and future possibilities for enhancing the GST regime. Panelists include Rama Mathew, ex-member of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs; V Lakshmikumaran, Founder and Managing Partner at Lakshmikumaran Sridharan' and Pratik Jain, Partner at PwC.