Piyush Goyal

Piyush Vedprakash Goyal (born 13 June 1964) is an Indian politician and chartered accountant serving as a cabinet minister in the Government of India, having portfolios such as Minister of Textiles, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Campaign In-charge for the Parliament elections in 1991 and played a key role at the central level in all elections since 2004.

His mother was a three-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Maharashtra and his father served as the Union Minister for shipping in the Third Vajpayee ministry 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 from Mumbai University.

He did his schooling from Don Bosco High School, Matunga.

Goyal started his career as an investment banker and served on the board of India's largest commercial banks, the State Bank of India 2001–2004 and Bank of Baroda 2002–2004 as Government nominee.

Goyal was a member of the Standing Committee on Finance and the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Defence.

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 Government of India to the Task Force for Interlinking of Rivers.

He was the Dy.

He was elected as the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Maharashtra for the Rajya Sabha in 2010.

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.

Earlier he was Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy (2014–2017), and Mines (2016–17).

Goyal became the Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy in the Modi government 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 (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 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 inr 38 per piece from inr 310 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.

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, he is also the current Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha.

Earlier, he held the post of the National Treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Goyal became the Minister of Railways on 3 September 2017 taking charge from Suresh Prabhu.

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.

Goyal has also held additional charge of Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs twice in 2018 and 2019.

Goyal is the 2018 Carnot Prize Recipient for distinguished contributions to energy policy.

He was awarded the 2018 Carnot Prize for distinguished contributions to energy policy and work in village electrification by the University of Pennsylvania's Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

He has been allocated the cabinet ministry for Narendra Modi led NDA government in May 2019.

Goyal was born in Mumbai to Chandrakanta Goyal and Ved Prakash Goyal.

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.