Piyush Goyal credited with ushering in new ideas irrespective of portfolio

If there’s one thing Piyush Goyal loves to make and break, it’s records — from the highest mobile apps launched in his earlier ministry of coal and power to being the only minister to be elevated to the finance portfolio twice. 

Goyal has a penchant for being a thorough professional. When he was sworn in as a Cabinet minister during a reshuffle in September 2017, his mother, seated among the audience, fell sick. Goyal took his oath and then attended to her. Of course, he thanked the security forces for taking care of his mother while he was busy taking oath. 

This time again, Goyal will miss an important milestone in his daughter’s life. On Thursday, when Goyal was getting inducted into the Modi 2.0 Cabinet at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, his daughter Radhika was attending the graduating ceremony at Harvard University in the US. 

People who know Goyal say work always gets priority over his personal life. Seen as a ‘reforms minister’, Goyal is credited with ushering in new steps irrespective of portfolio. 

Goyal spearheaded India’s first e-auction of coal blocks in India. While production from the auctioned blocks is yet to reach an optimum stage, the exercise brought the sector and the ministry out from the shadows of decade-long scams.

In power ministry, Goyal launched a series of reforms starting from UDAY for power distribution sector, MERIT for efficient power supply, stringent rural electrification and urban power schemes among others. This was followed by close to a dozen real-time dashboards and monitoring apps for transparency in decision-making.

Goyal is an all-India second rank holder Chartered Accountant. He also stood second in Law from the Mumbai University. The strong finance background helped Goyal in introducing new accounting practices in the Railway Board.

Goyal took charge of the Railways ministry in 2017, when the national transporter was troubled by a series of accidents. Under his minister-ship, the department claims the numbers of accidents came down. He also stepped up the pace of all infrastructure work conceptualised by the Narendra Modi government. This included improving electrification and renewal of tracks and also giving momentum to key projects like the dedicated freight corridors and bullet train.

An industry official fondly recalled how a key decision on station redevelopment was taken at midnight in Rail Bhawan. He knows how to take fast decisions and implement them even faster, said a close aide.