Piyush Goyal urges innovators to build social solutions

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal has called upon innovators and startups to develop low-cost and sustainable solutions to help civil society, corporate sector and government deal with initiatives that create social impact, such as cleaning up of lakes that he has started in his constituency.

“Maybe one of the innovators will come up with a cleaning machine for these lakes to maintain these lakes. There are machines internationally available but at a huge price. Maybe one of our startups will very easily be able to make it,” Goyal said at the TOI Social Impact Summit on Saturday. The minister, an MP from North Mumbai, is seeking to clean up nine lakes in his constituency and expand the initiative to the city.

He said in India, citizens voluntarily take up social causes. “When the Companies Bill was piloted about 13-14 years ago bringing in the provision of (mandatory 2% spend on) CSR, we were in opposition. I remember in the finance committee when the bill came up for scrutiny, I had felt we are actually doing dis-service to the Indian ethos, to the Indian way of life because in India, people don’t do CSR out of compulsion. The moment we bring it into the garb of compulsion, we change that connection. But be that as it may, it has brought more funds into CSR.” He also said government’s housing initiative had helped bring dignity to people and create assets while pushing a large section into the middle class. “That coming into the middle class, maybe neo middle class will move to upper middle class, will have a better quality of life. Double incomes are coming into families... this is spurring your economic growth. So, this is a very profitable proposition when you serve society.”


At the Summit, BCCL COO Mohit Jain said growth must be measured not merely by output, investment and ambition, but by the lives it strengthens. “A tree does not grow upward alone but underneath as well,” he said. “So, it is with the nation. The true strength of a country is revealed at its roots — in the student who gains access to better education, the patient who receives timely care and the community that becomes resilient enough to face an uncertain future.”