Govt asks electrical equipment makers to maintain quality

Stressing that the government will not compromise on quality, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal today asked electrical equipment manufacturers to ensure quality or face blacklisting.
"On more occasions than one I have requested and appealed to all of you that quality is going to be the defining feature of this government's programmes," Goyal said.
"And if any of you is still harboring hope and desire to use second grade sheets, to use recycled copper or to use any of these products which damage the life, quality or accuracy of electrical equipment, I can assure you that there will be nobody worse than me for you to deal with," he said.

Goyal was speaking after inaugurating 'ELECRAMA-2016 -The World Electricity Forum', organised by the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEMMA) here.
He said he wants the message to go to the entire industry that this government will "not at all" tolerate any compromise on quality.
"Power Secretaries of the states may also kindly note that, because we fund a lot of these schemes that are happening in the states, all of India is one, we want best of quality in the states also," he added.

Stating that after investigation it is found that somebody continues to indulge in malpractices, he said, "I promise you, I will make sure not only they get blacklisted in the government of India and all of associated public sector undertakings, I will ensure that state also blacklists them."

"I will appeal to my friends in the private sector to make sure that such a company is blacklisted and run that business to the ground," he added.
Noting that the world is challenged today and there is a situation where growth is not happening, Goyal said in his recent energy dialogues with the US or Japan or Australia he has observed that they have great technology and ideas, but don't have the capacity to execute it efficiently and effectively and hence moving their bases to China. He said, "I feel that the time has come to show the world that India has arrived, to show the world that this is the place to do business."

Pointing out that India is becoming much more investor friendly and business friendly, Goyal said this process has just begun and one will see a lot more action in the days to come.
Goyal said getting electricity connection played an
important role in the improvement of ease of doing business and anybody who applies should be guaranteed connection if the grid is available within 15 days.
"I do hope by 2019 the country can move to a situation that 24 hours you can have an electricity connection. More ideal situation will be you have bouquet of options to choose from and there by bringing in competition in the sector also better service planning...," he added.

Speaking about transparent bidding process in procuring of LEDs, transformers, cables, meters, Goyal said mission of the government is to make it completely equal opportunity, corruption free and clean administration which also helps to improve standards of quality.
Pointing out about the power crisis that Karnataka faced due to shortage of hydro power, he said unfortunately over many years India has never built an adequate transmission infrastructure to take power whenever there is a problem. He said "In fact for the record in barely last 18 months we have been able to increase the transmission capacity to south India which has perennially faced shortage of power, by 71 per cent."

"Going forward in the next 18-24 months we will expand it further, so effectively in three-and-half years of Modiji's government we would have seen three fold expansion in transmission capacity to south India," he added.