Govt working hard on its goal of corruption-free India: Goyal

He said he could cleanse the coal block allocations through a transparent and real-time e-auction process

The BJP-led government has laid a "solid foundation" for ease of doing business in the country, and is working hard to achieve its goal of keeping it corruption-free, Union Energy Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

The Union minister is currently visiting the US.

"Since assuming office, our government has laid a very solid foundation for the ease of doing business in the country," he said yesterday in a meeting with senior business executives from the energy sector organised by the US India Business Council (USIBC).

Goyal also spoke at another event organised by Overseas Friends of BJP-USA on Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.

Addressing a section of Indian-Americans in Tampa, Florida, he claimed that the first year of Modi government has been "completely scam-free".

The government is working hard to achieve its goal of a corruption-free India, he said.

"India's power generation capacity has grown significantly. We have seen 8.5 per cent growth in power generation year over year. We aim to provide electricity to all Indians by 2019," he said at the USIBC event.

The programme was attended by senior executives from various business majors including Oracle, GE, 3M, and Westinghouse.

USIBC's Executive Vice-President, Diane Farrell said power is the backbone of any economy and vital to Prime Minister's 'Make in India' initiative

"It is encouraging to see the tremendous strides being made by the sector to place India on a firm growth trajectory," she said.

Goyal in Tampa said, he could cleanse the coal block allocations through a transparent and real-time e-auction process that fetched the government Rs 1,89,000 crore by selling just 20 coal blocks and expected to reach Rs 3,00,000 crore when all the blocks are auctioned.

He claimed that from 2010 to 2013, the coal production grew by 31 million tons and in comparison just in 10 months during his tenure, the production grew by 32 million tons topping a total of 494 million tons.

Goyal said he has set a target of one billion tons by 2019.

Once this target is met and other projects initiated by his ministry are completed, India would have enough power to provide everyone 24x7 electricity, an important promise of Modi government, he said.

On the occasion, Goyal inaugurated a website (www. dreamindianetwork.Com), designed to bring experts and well-accomplished Indian-origin persons onto one platform to share knowledge and experience and help in India's development.