Economic growth & quality of life must go hand in hand: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: Real inclusion is the only way to achieve Viksit Bharat by 2047, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday, calling for a scale-up of social-impact programmes to ensure all people can be covered.

Speaking at the TOI Social Impact Summit in Mumbai, Goyal noted that companies are increasingly spending beyond the mandated 2% of their profits on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

"A society cannot develop just if the focus is on the economic aspects of society or economic growth. It has to be juxtaposed with the quality of life that is being provided to the people of India," the minister said, adding that government schemes on healthcare, housing, sanitation and power supply are aimed at economic growth as well as better quality of life for citizens.


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And "we are seeing the results of it," he said. "When you give 40 million people a good, proper home, you are not just giving him a home, you are giving his children good upbringing, you are giving him dignity."

Goyal cited the government's health insurance initiative, which helped people avoid situations where hospital bills forced them to sell jewellery, assets or take loans. Similarly, building toilets provided dignity to women besides addressing health concerns due to open defecation, he said.

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The minister, however, said he felt that the mandatory CSR spending requirement under Companies Act was a "disservice to the Indian ethos, way of life, and Indian thinking, because in India, people don't do CSR out of compulsion" when it was made mandatory in 2014.

"Every person in India voluntarily wants to give back to society, small or big, immaterial," he reasoned. "The moment we bring it into the garb of compulsion, we change that connection, that motivation to a compulsion. But...hopefully, it has brought more funds into CSR."

There are limitless possibilities to have social impact and to be change makers when foundations, multinational firms and startups work together, Goyal said.

He gave the example of individuals having cleaned up Juhu beach better than any government project and the initiative taken in his constituency to build sewa kendras, toilet complexes which offered shower, soap, laundry and RO water at ?1 a litre.

Stressing the need to work with the private sector on initiatives such as cleaning lakes, even as maintenance is done by citizens, Goyal sought the help of cement, solar power and water filter companies to expand the initiative.