Practical, hands-on learning has held me in good stead until today: Goyal

Says practical experience from institute will make you in very good stead to do well in your life

I started working when I was in the 11th standard, just towards the …. (unintelligible) of my 11th standard when I was in Jai Hind, a sister college of HR. And I was planning to do engineering, by the way — same 3 Idiots story. A family full of engineers, you get good marks in the 10th standard, so you take admission in Jai Hind, because it’s the best college in science, start preparing, go to Aggarwal Classes, if any of you remember. So, I was a student at Aggarwal Classes, professor... I don’t know whether he is teaching maths. And, the typical routine, you all get into that run.

And, somewhere in January 1980, I remember my brother was then studying at MIT, and also an engineer, same route —IIT Kanpur, top there, go to MIT, the same standard story that we find in our lives, in our families. And, we discussed and we said we will do entrepreneurship; we will set up our own business. 

So, he said get out of engineering and get into commerce. And that’s how I actually switched in 12th standard and went to HR from Jai Hind, from science to commerce and started working simultaneously to start a very small-scale business, very, very small scale. And that learning, that practical, hands-on learning has held me in good stead right until today.

So, when we designed the GST framework, I know jolly well where the loopholes are, where people are going to come and ask for bribes or what we need to do to make sure that things get system-driven, or how transparency can help save people from being pressured or harassed or terrorised also. 

So, practical experience, which all of you are benefiting from right in this institute, is going to really hold you in very, very good stead, it’s going to help you do well in life.

I hope to see each one of you as entrepreneurs, maybe go and take a loan from a bank for the first time, learn how to prepare a bank loan application — as I did sitting outside Union Bank of India on the stools there — taking the bank manager’s help: “What the hell does this mean, what do I have to do, how do I tally these numbers?” And, it’s great to learn on the job and which is the opportunity, I think, in a large measure you are getting in this institute. So, you are privileged in that sense.

And, I am sure each one of you will make outstanding citizens of our country, each one of you will do us proud, just like the young girl Niroora, who designed the T-shirt, which I had had the privilege of wearing on June 21, only last month, barely a month ago in Vizag, Visakhapatnam where I had gone for the International Yoga Day. And I didn’t even know it comes out of the institute I am going to visit barely 40 days after that.

So, truly a privilege for me to be amongst all of you, lovely to meet all of you. I was told that you would like to ask me a few questions, grill me a little bit, à la what — Arnab Goswami or Rajdeep Sardesai? But, with the Rajdeep style you won’t get me to acknowledge that Narendra Modi is bad — despite his best efforts he’s not been able to do that.

But, truly, it’s a great moment in history that India is experiencing. We are going through difficult times in the world economy. India is that shining star, which is outperforming the world economy. We saw the lovely simulated stock exchange...  and if at all that’s any barometer, it’s at an all-time high. I wish I had invested in Yes Bank shares a few years ago, probably, I could retire for the rest of my life. But I am happy doing what I am.

Actually, at some stage, money loses purpose in life. And, I am glad that you are taking your students into the villages, because until you get into the villages, until you see their life — believe me, nobody likes to live in a slum, nobody is happy to be deprived of electricity, nobody is happy that his school doesn’t have good teachers or quality education, nobody is happy carrying his mother or his wife on his shoulder and walking 12 kilometres before he can get health care. Some of you may remember reading about what happened in Odisha barely a couple of months ago. Nobody is happy with all that. It’s circumstances that have maybe helped all of us board the train and some are left behind.

And, I am glad that this school is also preparing you for those challenges, because, ultimately, those challenges are our challenges. As the new honourable president said — if any of you heard his acceptance speech last week or earlier this week — that bringing about change or improving the lives of the people of India or making India a superpower, meeting the aspirations of a billion people cannot be the job merely of the government. We will all have to participate. It will have to be a people’s movement, every section of society, teachers, administrators, students, our parents, our friends; everybody will have to collaborate in this effort.

It’s like the beads in a necklace — one bead goes out, the necklace gets out of sync; or one crack in a wheel and the whole wheel is finished. And we are cogs in that wheel, we are all a part of that necklace. All these various things, I saw the Make in India programme, you are working with the Skill India initiative, our Power For All effort to make sure that every child gets electricity, every home in the country gets electricity at affordable prices, our efforts to clean the environment, have a green India, the Swachh Bharat movement to make India clean — all of these may sound small, but each one has a deep meaning and without each one of these this necklace cannot be complete. And I am glad that in that beautiful necklace, the ISDI and ISME is also a bead, which is helping to make that necklace complete.

Excerpt from a speech by Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal at the Indian School of Management and Entrepreneurship in Mumbai on August 1