Urban Transport Infrastructure November 2018 Urban Transport Infra November 2018 | Page 47

Interview
reference and relevance for all the
states?
Mr. Rajiv: Given the size and
diversity of India where initial
conditions and prevailing conditions
are so dramatically different in every
state across all dimensions that I am
one of those economists who believe
having a pan-India policy for
anything with any detail is not the
really right thing to do. What you
want is a framework policy which
defines certain broad parameters
within which states should be free to
frame their own policies. What should
be clear that state policies should not
be contingent upon the role of the what we are doing is really on a sort
of every ground-based and broad-
based method.
So the Global summit is going to be a
global summit being led by the PM
and participated by the key industries?
Mr. Rajiv: It is also being attended by
the domestic and global industry;
global mayors of cities which have
achieved a big success in new forms of
mobility. Because we want to learn as
well we want to get it rooted in our
own ground reality. We also have an
expo where the latest in ZEVs and
other related aspects will be on
display.
You think the ambiguities on the higher growth.
In this large ecosystem of mobility,
where does EV stand?
Mr. Rajiv: It is a centerpiece. Not
necessarily the Teslas of the world for
India. ZEV for public transport and for
the poor people and generation of jobs is
at the centre of this entire mobility
policy in India that we are trying to
design at this time.
Is there a difference in opinion of the Niti
Aayog and the govt on the policies
related to EV?
Mr. Rajiv: It is completely wrong. We
have got a very clear direction ahead
which is being provided by the
honourable PM. We are on the same
central govt. Having said that, we
had energy transport and chief
secretaries of 33 states and UTs here
in NITI Aayog to discuss new
mobility and to encourage them to
make an action plan. They are all
constituting their own task forces
which will be meeting now. We all
want to have regional workshops in
the month of July in the run-up to
the global summit. We are hoping
that by that time, most of the states
would have energised their own task
forces and would have come up with
their own plan of action on how they
would promote shared and connected
mobility in the coming months. So policy will be ironed out by then?
Mr. Rajiv: Absolutely.
FAME has set a target of increasing
the number of EVs to 4% of overall
new vehicle sales in the next five years
starting from 2018. What message
would you like the industry to take?
Mr. Rajiv: The industry should take
the message that this is one of the
biggest opportunities that has come
their way and they should seize it
with both hands and prepare for this
amazing
transformation.
The
government will work very closely
with industry in making sure that
mobility becomes the generator of
good quality jobs and a trigger for page. We had several meetings with
several ministries. I have never seen
any discordant noises as some people
try and tell me. So I don't what is this
perception. And please remove this
perception.
So we expect a cohesive policy where all
wrinkles will be ironed out with this
summit?
Mr. Rajiv: That is our attempt.
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#Interview Credit: Ms. Suman Jha
Urban Transport Infrastructure | November 2018