Ratul Puri talking his mind out at ‘Third Annual Power Focus Summit’

On February 23, 2016, New Delhi-based Le Meridien Hotel witnessed the Third Annual Power Focus Summit in its premises, where the Secretary of Power Ministry- GOI, Mr. P K Pujari addressed the delegates along with other well-renowned personalities. These personalities include the President of TCL – BCCL, Mr. Deepak Lamba; Director of BSES Rajdhani and Yamuna Power, Mr Gopal Saxena; Joint Managing Director and CEO of JSW Energy, Mr. Sanjay Sagar and Senior Director of CRISIL Ratings, Mr Sudip Sural.
When the concerned authority felicitated the Chairman, Hindustan Powerprojects, Ratul Puri, the man highlighted the massive growth calibre that Indian power sector has, which it need to utilise for attracting investments, keeping in mind the gigantic demand for energy across the Nation.
Ratul Puri said, “With multiple programs like Make in India, Skilling India and StartUp India, the economy has witnessed numerous growth initiatives. After a long time, people outside are seeing India as a country which can truly deliver. There is a lot of trust in India’s potential. If we miss the bus this time, we will find it very difficult to deliver in future. One sector which has seen a major movement and change in recent times has been the power sector”.
Ratul Puri also mentioned that the success of renewable energy plans relies on Discoms’ ability to ‘absorb and uplift the power’, which is a debatable issue till date. Ratul Puri told a concerned media person, “The Government has been working proactively to rectify this anomaly. The launch of the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) for financial restructuring of discoms is a welcome step in this regard. However, we must ensure its speedy implementation and look to improve fiscal discipline of discoms at the earliest to see the desired results”, Mr Puri said.
With a fall in the price of power on exchanges and turtle-like growth of power’s demand, the whole power sector has become an area of concern for numerous people including service providers, believes Ratul Puri.
While talking about the Solar sector’s status in India, Ratul Puri said, “There has been a lot of talks recently on the low price bids we have seen on the solar side. I think we need to be careful in not celebrating this too early. Maybe it is a good movement but if investors don’t generate a reasonable return on their capital and banks, once again, get hurt in this renewable cycle, I think we have set ourselves back by a couple of years.”
The Hindustan Powerprojects’ head concluded his inaugural address by putting stress on the need to revitalise the hydropower sector as soon as possible, which is a promising source of energy in India because of its traits of cleanliness and renewability.