Piyush Vedprakash Goyal (born 13 June 1964) is a politician, chartered accountant and cabinet minister of the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

having portfolios such as Minister of Textiles, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. He was elevated to the Cabinet Minister position on 3 September 2017. Currently a Member of Parliament for Rajya Sabha from the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...

, he is also the current

Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha The Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha (IAST: ) is the leader and parliamentary chairperson of the majority party in the Rajya Sabha and is normally either a cabinet minister or another nominated minister. The Leader of the House is responsible f ...

. Earlier, he held the post of the National Treasurer of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

(BJP). He headed the BJP's Information Communication Campaign Committee where he oversaw the publicity and advertising campaign of the party including the social media outreach for the Indian General Elections 2014. Goyal has also held additional charge of Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs twice in 2018 and 2019. Earlier he was Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy (2014–2017), and Mines (2016–17). Goyal is the 2018 Carnot Prize Recipient for distinguished contributions to energy policy. He has been allocated the cabinet ministry for

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

led NDA government in May 2019.

Early life

Goyal was born in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

to Chandrakanta Goyal and Ved Prakash Goyal. His mother was a three-time

(BJP)

Member of Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

(MLA) from

and his father served as the Union Minister for shipping in the

Third Vajpayee ministry Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister of India for third time on 13 October 1999. He headed his Third Vajpayee Ministry. Here is the list of ministers in his ministry. Cabinet ministers ...

from 2001 to 2003. His father also served as the National Treasurer of the BJP for over two decades. Piyush Goyal is Chartered Accountant and he did Law in

Mumbai University The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed h ...

. He did his schooling from

Don Bosco High School, Matunga Don Bosco High School is a Roman Catholic all-male school in Matunga, Mumbai, India. It has a subsidiary which was built in 1970 in Borivali. History In 1937, the general council of Salesians of Don Bosco approved a plan to buy 60,000 square ...

Career

Goyal started his career as an investment banker and served on the board of India's largest commercial banks, the

State Bank of India State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian multinational public sector bank and financial services statutory body headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. SBI is the 49th largest bank in the world by total assets and ranked 221st in the '' Fort ...

2001–2004 and

Bank of Baroda Bank of Baroda (BOB or BoB) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat. It is the second largest public sector bank in India after State Bank of India, with 132 million customers, a total business of US$218 billion, ...

2002–2004 as Government nominee. Goyal was a member of the Standing Committee on Finance and the Consultative Committee for the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

. An active member of the Managing Committee of Indian Merchants Chamber, he is also involved with NGOs in diverse fields such as tribal education and welfare of the physically challenged (Jaipur Foot). During his 35-year-long political career, he has served on the National Executive and held several important positions in the BJP including the national treasurer. He was also nominated by the

to the Task Force for Interlinking of Rivers. He was the Dy. Campaign In-charge for the Parliament elections in 1991 and played a key role at the central level in all elections since 2004. He was elected as the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from

for the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

in 2010.

Minister of State for Coal, Power, New and Renewable Energy (2014–17)

Goyal became the Minister of State for

Power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

, New and Renewable Energy in the

Modi government The premiership of Narendra Modi began on 26 May 2014 with his swearing-in as the prime minister of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He became the 14th Prime Minister of India, succeeding Manmohan Singh of the Indian National Congress. Modi's f ...

in 2014 and undertook multiple initiatives in his term. Under his tenure, India saw a proliferation of renewable energy through the world's largest renewable energy expansion program. Ministry under him accelerated the mission to provide 24X7 reliable electricity to all households and pushed towards the adoption of clean energy. He introduced the

Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) is the financial turnaround and revival package for electricity distribution companies of India (DISCOMs) initiated by the Government of India with the intent to find a permanent solution to the financial mes ...

(UDAY) to revive debt-ridden power distribution companies and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) to improve India's energy access. He initiated and completed the government program to electrify all the 18,000 remaining unelectrified villages of the country. He was awarded the 2018 Carnot Prize for distinguished contributions to energy policy and work in village electrification by the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. He also worked for energy efficiency in the country through the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable Lighting for All (UJALA) scheme and reduced the prices of LED bulbs to per piece from in 2014. He revised the Government's target of 20 GW of solar power by 2022 to five times (i.e. 100 GW). Along with this, he also helped the cash-strapped state power distribution companies to turn around. On 5 July 2016, during the second cabinet reshuffle of the Modi ministry, he was included in the cabinet and took over as the Minister of State for Mines (Independent charge) from Narendra Singh Tomar.

Minister of Railways (2017 – 2021)

Goyal became the

Minister of Railways A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructure. ...

on 3 September 2017 taking charge from

Suresh Prabhu Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu (born 11 July 1953) is an Indian politician, India's Sherpa (emissary), Sherpa to the G7 anChancellor of Rishihood University who was the Ministry of Civil Aviation (India), Minister of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Rail ...

. Under his leadership, Indian Railways established a "Zero Accident" railway system and have seen no accidents for the past 22 months. He started 'Plan Bee', a method to prevent elephants from approaching the railway lines. It involves setting up of devices near tracks, which emit the 'buzzing' sound of bees, saving elephants from train accidents. He launched the first indigenous semi-high speed train Vande Bharat Express between Delhi and Varanasi. In all the mountain railways region of the country, Goyal introduced Vista-Dome coaches, in an attempt to allow the passengers to enjoy the scenery of the hilly terrains. On 27 February 2019, Piyush Goyal announced a Railway Zone for Andhra Pradesh named South Coast Railway with Waltair Division in Andhra Pradesh along with Guntur, Guntakal and Vijayawada Divisions with the headquarters of the zone being in Visakhapatnam, according to the AP Reorganisation Act 2014. Goyal announced the ‘Clone Train Scheme’, wherein it planned to run a clone train with the train of the same number, to help and provide relief to the waitlisted passengers over heavy passenger traffic routes. For fighting climate change and making plastic-free India, he announced that tea will be sold in environment friendly 'Kulhads' (earthen cups) in place of plastic cups at all railway stations in the country. From May through August 2018, he was temporarily given additional charge of Ministry of Finance during

Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jai ...

's absence for medical treatment. Goyal presented the 2019 Interim-Union budget of India in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

on 1 February 2019.

Coronavirus Pandemic

By taking advantage of the

COVID-19 lockdown in India On the evening of 24 March 2020, the Government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21days, limiting movement of the entire 1.38billion (138 crore) population of India as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in India. It ...

, the Indian Railways completed 200 key long pending projects . These projects, according to the Railways officials, included three super critical projects with a combined length of 68 km, three critical projects with a combined length of 45 km, upgradation of the entire 389 km railway line from Jhajha in Bihar to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction in Uttar Pradesh and a new 82 km port connectivity line to Paradip. During COVID pandemic in India, Goyal got Indian Railways to developed anti-COVID-19 coach to contain the spread of coronavirus. This anti-COVID-19 coach had hands-free water tanks and flushes; copper-coated handles and locks. During the second wave of the pandemic in India, to overcome the scarcity of Oxygen, the railways under him decided to run Oxygen Express to transport medical oxygen as well as the oxygen cylinders. As of 7 May 2021, the Indian Railways ran "40 Oxygen Express with 161 tankers to deliver a record load of 2,511 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen."

Minister of Commerce & Industry (2019 – present)

In May 2019, Goyal continued at the Ministry of Railways and got the

Ministry of Commerce and Industry A Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry or variations is a ministry that is concerned with a nation's trade, industry and commerce. Notable examples are: List *Algeria: Ministry of Industry and ...

. He aims to discard restrictive States Government policies pertaining to License Raj, Land Permissions, Foreign Investment Proposals, and Environmental Clearances. In a bid to systematise the onboarding process of retailers on e-commerce platforms, Goyal directed the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to utilise the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to set protocols for cataloging, vendor discovery and price discovery. Goyal aims to provide equal opportunities to all marketplace players to make optimum use of the e-commerce ecosystem in the larger interest of the country and its citizen. Under Goyal's leadership in Jan 2021 India jumped 14 spots in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings taking India to 63rd spot amongst 190 countries. In a bid to Atmanirbhar Bharat, Goyal launched One District One Product (ODOP) initiative to fuel the economic growth and generate employment within India. The objective of ODOP is to convert each district of India into an export hub by identifying products with export potential in the respective district. Goyal inaugurated ‘Prarambh’ International Summit, an initiative by Startup India in New Delhi.

Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha (2021 - present)

In July 2021, Goyal was appointed the

succeeding his colleague Thawar Chand Gehlot.

Deputy Leader of the House (2019 - 2021)

In June 2019, he was appointed the Deputy Leader of the House in

Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (2020 – present)

After the demise of Ram Vilas Paswan, he took over the additional charge of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Food & Public Distribution on 9 October 2020. After taking charge, Goyal announced the strengthening and modernising of the

Food Corporation of India Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ...

. He also emphasised that the procurement system at Minimum support price (MSP) will continue and

(FCI) will be committed to serving farmers. To ensure that all the migrant labor community can draw their allotted ration anywhere in the country Goyal called for speedy implementation of One Nation One Ration Scheme. At the 3rd Governing Council meeting of the

Bureau of Indian Standards The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standa ...

(BIS), Goyal directed to cut quality testing charges for MSMEs, Startups and Women Entrepreneurs. Goyal also directed the Department of Consumer Affairs to focus and ensure on quality and quantity of products, processes and services to the consumers by way of the BIS Act, 2016 and Legal Metrology Act, 2009.

Personal life

He is married to Seema Goyal, an active social worker, and they have two children. His son Dhruv Goyal works at Evercore (investment banking) while his daughter Radhika Goyal works at Bain (consulting).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goyal, Piyush 1964 births Living people People from Haryana Politicians from Mumbai Indian accountants Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra Union ministers of state of India with independent charge Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Maharashtra Narendra Modi ministry Rajya Sabha members from the Bharatiya Janata Party Railway Ministers of India Finance Ministers of India Ministers for Corporate Affairs Ministers of Power of India Commerce and Industry Ministers of India