India story alive and kicking: Jyotiraditya Scindia

Speaking to NDTV on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Union Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia says the India story is very much alive and kicking. He says it's important to look at things from a global perspective. There are very few stories such as India's even today, he says.

Here is the edited transcript of the interview:

NDTV: India's Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is also here in Davos to tell India's story. Thank you so much for being here on NDTV. You have been given the uphill task to convince everyone here that India's growth story is alive and kicking.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: I think it is very important to look at things in context. If you look at the rest of the world there are very few stories like India even today in terms of GDP growth rate, market size, and topline and bottomline growth of companies. I think we have been through a difficult year and so has rest of the world but I am sure we are coming out of that now and looking ahead at good prospects. As you know Shweta, the government has moved a number of gears in terms of new implementation and execution attitude. Slowly but surely I think we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

NDTV: I have been talking to a number of delegates here about India's story and the one thing that comes are road blocks is the infrastructure, which is a big worry. Would you admit that it is today the biggest road block in India's growth story?

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Let me say this that India's investment cycle is very much pre-determined by its power cycle. Close to about 30-40 per cent of the growth in industries comes clearly from the power sector. Undoubtedly it has slowed down. There are structural issues that need to be ironed out.

NDTV: But that's not happening despite the interference of the Prime Minister. We have not seen any movement forward in fuel supply.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: That is because you haven't called me on your show for a while. We have actually ironed out all the issues that were stopping private and government companies from signing those FSAs (fuel supply agreements) with Coal India. I had a three and a half hour meeting with Coal Minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal. We have put a number of  processes and he has cleared out all the cobwebs and as of now out of the 60 gigawatts that was supposed to be signed according to the Prime Minister way before when I took over in the last 2 and half months, we have already signed around 12-16 gigawatts. I am monitoring that personally on a daily basis and hopefully in the next two to three weeks NTPC will be signing all the FSAs with the CIL.

NDTV: That's going to happen in next two to three weeks.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Yes we have just cleared a lot of issues in the board meeting yesterday and they will sign their FSAs and another 12-14 gigawatts and then you will see a lot of private players coming in. There was an issue with regard to CIL asking for long term PPAs in order to sign those FSAs. We have obviated that, so that the private producers, private generators the IBPs can sign those FSAs without having a long term PPAs in place. We have cleared out all the structural issues and I must thanks the Coal Minister for his cooperation in this issue. But along with that please remember that it is only one part of the puzzle that is generation. There is also transmission and distribution.

NDTV: That remains a critical bill absolutely.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Absolutely, because at the end of the day you are talking about production of a product but you need to be sure about if you can sell it to your customer and retrieve that value monetarily from your customer. For that the most important piece in the puzzle is to get the discoms (distribution companies) financially back on track.

NDTV: That's something that has been talked about for a very long time. How do you ensure that it gets done because you talking about the AT&C (aggregate technical and commercial) losses so explain to us the strategy you haven't played.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: We talked about it prior to start of the interview some of the things that you want to do. We have the financial restructuring packages (FRPs), which is close to about Rs 1, 90,000 crore mainly concentrating on 7-8 state discoms, which contribute about Rs 1,00,000 crore. Out of that Rs 1,90,000 crore, we are putting in place of very strict regulations so as to reduce those AT&C losses, make those discoms viable and from my point of view as far as the government is concerned I don't have any issue at all with any state government.  My only concern is that the discoms should be cash neutral from that exercise. So if you are doing a subsidy exercise that's fine but that cash amount must be pumped into those discoms so that those discoms remain cash neutral. How do we make sure that this happens? I think that there is a little bit of transparency that is also required. We are right now working on a rating structure for all state discoms and are actually putting the pieces in puzzles. Trying to get that information and put them online for all consumers' financiers banking agencies. Along with that as I said I am having a state power ministers conference on the 5th of February where we will be discussing a wide range of issues. It's a much targeted issue. It's a 8 hour close door meeting very focused across the whole generation, transmission and distribution where I am picking up with them 6-7 key issues that we need to resolve ranging from grid issues to distribution issue to RGB and RGY, RPDRP to coal block issues. We are also going to have a much focused interaction and one clear message I do want to send we in central government are here to assist the states in whatever way that we can. We need to make sure that both of us are working together towards that goal and are not on opposite side of spectrum.

NDTV: Important points you made there but let me ask you a larger question here given the fact that the supply linkages remain to be an issue we are seeing that the basis raw materials are getting expensive. We are talking about even importing the fuel. Are we now headed towards a time where the power tariffs are all set to rise. Do we have to live with that reality now that the days of cheap power are over?

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Let me say this you have raised two very critical issues. First is with regard to input. If you have no fuel and power and therefore today what is happening is if you look at the ACQs contracted to close to about 855 of those ACQs are being fulfilled which means that we are operating roughly around 70-68% PLFs. That impacts every single power plant in terms of capacity charge and therefore if you are able to raise the level of the fuel that comes in there you will also have handle on tariffs. So what we are thinking in terms of government and other ministries in terms of price pooling and bringing in imported coal and making sure that this happens.

NDTV: But that raises the cost right ?

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: That does raise the cost but it's a meaningful cost amount so I don't want to discount it but I don't think that it will be an exurban amount because if you look at the price pooling happen and the basket you are talking about 10-15 per cent and therefore the presumptive cost of that pricing will be a waited. The aspect ratio which will be less than 10-15 per cent.  I think you spoke about the other aspect of the power tariffs. We do not have any control over the power tariffs because in a federal structure it's all decided by the states.  What we are saying is that there should be tariff revisions. The key issue there is the rate of discoms. It's not a fundamental issue of tariffs. So the tool to retrieve the issue of Discoms is that one is to reduce our AT&C losses and our transmission losses. The other is to raise tariffs.  It depends on the states which level they really want to use. We are trying to assist in any way possible through Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Udyan Yojna (RGGUY) where we have devolved close to about Rs 50,000 cores across all the states in the country therefore trying to reduce this AT&C losses. A lot of these schemes are actually born fruit. The national losses of At&C losses which use to be about close to about 38% has now dropped to about 25 per cent.

NDTV: And you see that trend continuing.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Yes I have been monitoring it myself. I have built along the last two months along with my team in the Power Ministry. Actually built a dashboard on 6 to 7 key things that I am personally monitoring on a daily basis, so that ranges from making sure that CPS use generating capacity comes on stream both hydel and thermal and I am personally looking at 8-9 gigawatts of that capacity grid disturbances ensuring that the grids operate. We have the fail safe agreement in place. On the distribution side to ensure that states reduce AT&C losses. A number of parameters I am trying to look at with my team to ensure that we are actually have a viable sector going forward.

NDTV: It's great to see such wonderful work happening because I think that all that remains the missing piece of the puzzle for the overall India story. If have to talk about the blackout that India faced its now been over six months. Can you safely assure that we will not see such thing again?

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: The key thing is that all state governments along with the centre actually adhere with certain principals. The reason why that blackout happened and I want to make it clear that there were a number of states that were overdrawing power. The minute you overdraw power you actually don't listen to signals that are being sent in terms of warnings and in terms of the destabilizing of the transmission line. Then you actually lead up to that kind of situation. We have also reduced the the key issue here is to evolve a policy those states that are actually adhering to those points need to be rewarded and those states that are not there needs to be an institutional mechanism in place that corrects that. If you look at the electricity act of 2003 many of the clauses will be around, many of those things need to be corrected so as to ensure that things like this don't happen. As we speak I am working on those amendments. CEA and I have been working on the amendment we have passed the as far as we are concerned. We are pushing it through the system and we are trying to get it in this parliament session. The second part of the budget session I would very much employ the process that the system we need to go ahead and pass this. But let's see what turn it takes.

NDTV: Overall what we are seeing better functioning within government ministry..The real concern have been the infighting.. Whether it is the coal power petroleum thats something that is stopping some of the idols of capacity that are lying in the power sector actually taking off. Do you see that it is taken care of?

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: To tell you with my experience I have been in the department only for 70 days it's a vast department and a very complicated one. I spent the first 10 days on a white board with a marker and I felt I was back at school that it is actually a wonderful learning curve. There are tremendous synergies and requirements in this ministry and with the Ministry of coal, environment and petroleum.

NDTV: Gas pricing and all of those issues.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Not gas pricing and availability of Gas. For me the key issue is I have close to 9 gigawatts of gas capacity.

NDTV: You want the gas cheap so the pricing is important.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Let's come to that after a little bit. On the synergies whether it's the ministry of environment or coal, I have a wonderful relationship with both the ministers and the secretaries of the bureaucracy within them. As you are aware I prefer working under the radar. There are a lot of work that are being done and we are trying to resolve a lot of issue and I am very confident that with their corporation we will get on the right path once again.

NDTV: Okay let's move away from power and talk about power plays. Let's talk about the political temperature back in Delhi. Rahul Gandhi's elevation has been a very significant political development. Share with us what it means overall for the congress party. He is obviously the prime ministerial choice or something that we have got minister Kamalnath admitting here in Davos. Share with us some more details on how this is really going to play out over the next few months.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Well I think what's really important to understand is that this is a phenomenal move and a tremendous step not only for the congress party and the youth but also for the entire nation. For the first time after a number of years you have got a youth icon who has very clear thoughts about is extremely transparent is very forth right is very clear in his thinking in terms of not only where he wants to take the congress party but also where he wants to take the country. In him you have the ability to take on challenges as he has demonstrated in Uttar Pradesh.

NDTV: Not quite and thats the whole thing. The skeptics have a very different story to tell.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: That may be but the results are not important Shweta it is fact that we have taken up the challenges.

NDTV: The results are what that matters because if you are talking about 2014 and you have seen the failure in Uttar Pradesh.

Scindia:I don't think you can look and judge a person by a single event. I think you need to judge a person over a period of time.

NDTV: It's that period of time that many questions. The fact that he has not been able to take on the challenge.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: I think lot of people said about Indira Gandhiji in her earlier days and also about Rajiv Gandhiji. Look where these people have taken this country in terms of leadership capability.

NDTV: But Rahul had the opportunity and many do believe that he did not display the kind of what was really expected out of him.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: I think that today's India's generation does understand it's responsibility and try and deliver on that responsibility. His responsibility until 4-5 days ago was that of the general secretary of the congress party, in charge of youth congress and NSUI and the churning the change and the metamorphosis that he has brought about in the NSUI and the youth congress by instituting a new election mechanism process I think its historical. It had not been done in our country or in any country earlier. That has resulted in a number of youth leaders. You saw a reflection of that in Jaipur where 150 youth candidate in the 370 candidates came in to deliberate on these issues. I saw that in my committee. I was in the foreign policy committee and the ideas that these young boys and girls, young men and women came up with were phenomenal.

Shweta:So you talking about strategic shift there.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Absolutely, those who were given the change whether in the Vidhan Sabha election or in the Lok Sabha election have resulted. Example for you is Manik Tagore and Ravneet Singh. When we talk about this whole issue of Parivaar waad or there are so many examples of new youth Icons and leaders who come up from the grassroots. You heard many of them talk in Jaipur. That's the transformation he is bringing out for the next generation. His thought process is not for today or tomorrow he is here to build India for decade or next two decades and I think, that long term thinking, somewhere in the over the last two decades, have been completely lost as you are now.

NDTV: You are agreeing to that.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: I do, we go from event to to event and day to day. There are very few of us who actually pause and think what are the building blocks that we need to put in place for the next 10 years. I think Rahul Gandhiji has done exactly that. He is following footsteps very much of his father, who put in place the computer revolution. The telecom, milk, oil seed revolution and you and I, 30-40 years ago, the generation would scoff at this and today you have become an IT power.

NDTV: So you are saying he is following his father's footsteps my limited question to you is, Is he ready to be the India's Prime Minister?

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: I think he is and I think he should be. I think everyone of us are aspiring to see him in that position. The youths of this country see in him a lot of dynamism, truthfulness that is one aspect that is missing from a lot of our political class, sincerity of purpose and not wanting to stick to a position or a chair. The very fact that he talked about power being poison. How many of us politicians think of power as poison in India. We lust for power; we lust for that Laal batti.

NDTV: We should read that nit just as his elevation as the Vice president of the congress party but as the India's Prime Ministerial candidate. The congress party suggests so but we are yet to hear from him whether he is ready to be India's Prime Minister.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: I certainly hope so.

NDTV: You are also close to him so you think he is ready for this.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: I certainly hope so and I can speak in my personal capacity and may be as an voice of many Indians. We would certainly like to see him in that leader position and take this country forward and in bring in place a new form of politics what he said yesterday. Where he wants to move away from negativity to positive approach.

NDTV: I think it's not all that easy because what we have seen in the last few years is not just the sharp economic slowdown, but also the middle class really telling the UPA that they have not been able to get the pulse of the people. Whether it is in regard to corruption or women security. We have seen an uprising of sort taking place in India. Is that not a reflection of the congress party somewhere not realizing that they missed that pulse.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: I do not doubt for a second that we have our work cut out for us. We need to put our mind to the task. We need to execute on that front I don't doubt that and I am admitting that to you today. Let me also say this is not a UPA government issue. Whether you talk about corruption or security.

NDTV: This government has been in power for the last 9 years, so the accountability has to come in.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Please don't forget that we live in a federal system. Whether you talk about security or the corruption issue. You and I know that corruption is pervasive down the system. It's not about UPA government. You go to the state government. I am open to say this I have faced corruption in my time.

NDTV: But you think it will be a big issue in 2014. Don't you think the voters will punish this government for issues like corruption, increasing prices?

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Again let me say this, I would like to move away from this government, I would very much like these issues in the next election. Because unless it becomes issue for you me and common man you will not see change in the country. I am as angry about this as anyone else. I want to see changes as well because as you have seen it so have I and we want that change to come because many of us are frustrated with the same issue and let me say this corruption is not because of Congress or BJP or any X or Y party, but today has become pervasive in the beauracratic era. Whether you talk about tehsildaars or patwaaris or you talk about across the board. There is a need to have a social purging as well. There needs to be a social cleansing. There is not one Panacea to it that you throw one government out get another one in and everything will change it won't until you and I change it  and we must bring in power to people who believe represent that train of thought.

NDTV: Alright you clearly do have your task cut out for you and that 2014 is nearing and it will be interesting times ahead as you push forward government economic agenda and keep one eye on the overall political situation. Thanks for talking to us.

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA: Thanks you very much for having me with you as always.