Piyush Goyal

After the announcement of the Union Budget for fiscal year 2016-17, Piyush Goyal told CNBC-TV18 that by the end of 2017, the government will ensure to provide electricity to 18452 villages located in remote locations and aims to provide electricity 24/7 to every household in India by 2019.

Aimed at attracting investments, the week will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and will also see a focus on government-to-government interactions, with four head of states from across the world and 12 Indian chief ministers in attendance. It will also have sector-specific seminars.

"Some Japanese companies have also indicated that they would be interested in financing UMPPs if we could have some portion of tariff indexed to a basket of currencies or a particular currency, which could mean much larger financing from international sources at a lower rate of interest with longer tenure and cheaper power," the minister said

Japan figures very high on the Indian government's Look East policy and the Union Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal is in the land of the rising sun to attend the Strategic Energy Summit being held there.

The Indian government will be awarding upto 12 new contracts to build as many new ultra mega power projects within the next two and a half years. This is the announcement made by the energy minister Piyush Goyal who is currently in Japan, attending the strategic energy dialogue.

The government of Andhra Pradesh at the three-day CII Partnership Summit that began on Sunday in Visakhapatnam aims at attracting foreign investment and turning the state into a manufacturing hub.

Piyush Goyal, minister of power and coal, says UDAY is not a centrally directed scheme. It has been prepared in collaboration with all the states, bankers, consumer organisations, PSUs and hence was never made mandatory.

As per the MoU signed between the two, the wagons will be procured by railways on behalf of Coal India for exclusive use in the evacuation of coal traffic from the mines of Coal India.

People are aspiring for better quality of life and power is an essential ingredient in that. I am very convinced that all the states will come on board for UDAY Scheme, said Power and Coal Minister, Piyush Goyal.

In a chat with CNBC-TV18‘s Sanjay Suri, Coal and Power Minister, Piyush Goyal said that for the last 150 years, the West has used low cost coal based energy to develop their economies and generate jobs.

The two-day 'Resurgent Rajasthan' investor summit kicked off in Jaipur on Thursday with the who's who of India Inc in attendance.

"The CCEA has given its approval for authorising National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to allow extension of concession period for all current projects in BOT (Toll) mode that are languishing during the construction period due to causes not attributable to the concessionaire," an official statement said.

The whole idea behind Uday is a sustainable solution for the power sector for times to come, says Power Minister, Piyush Goyal.

Saying that discoms were trapped in a vicious cycle with operational losses being funded by debt and Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) will provide the financial support for their revival.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Power Minister Piyush Goyal discussed the impact of the UDAY initiative that the central government unveiled today that will take the debt off struggling discoms books and transfer them to states' balance sheets.

Sources tell CNBC-TV18 the Cabinet will take up a proposal to restructure their debt this Thursday.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu says the Ministry has implemented almost 99 percent of the announcements made in Union Budget.

Discussing the Modi government‘s efficiency in the Parliament, the Power and Coal Minister, Piyush Goyal said that the government was able to get five of the six ordinances cleared.

Goyal had earlier said the Centre cannot be considered as a bailout bank for helping debt-ridden power distribution companies, and states will have to find a way out of the crisis. The combined debt of power distribution companies (discoms) stands at over Rs 3 lakh crore.

On the eve of 11th Motilal Oswal Investor Conference, Raamdeo Agrawal, Joint MD of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said participation by over 100 companies reveal "total lack of fear" in India story.