India must start work on replacing coal plants with renewable: Rahul Munjal

Hero Future Energies' chairman and managing director Rahul Munjal speaks on on social media, sustainability and energy efficiency

Over sushi, Munjal tells Shreya Jai and Jyoti Mukul why it is important for India to start a discussion on sustainable technology immediately

We are at Megu at The Leela Palace hotel in New Delhi to meet Rahul Munjal, chairman and managing director, Hero Future Energies. A grandson of B M Munjal, patriarch of two-wheeler company Hero MotoCorp, the junior Munjal moved to London in 2018 with the dream of building a global green energy business. He’s a regular at this Japanese restaurant in Delhi’s diplomatic enclave.

As we take our seats, we notice a Buddha statue right next to our corner table. A lady saunters in and pours some rose water on it.

We ask Munjal if Delhi's unrelenting air pollution is one of the reasons he shifted base to London. He laughs out loud: “My ambition is to become a global player. The other reason is my son has been in a London boarding school for many years now,” says the 43-year-old son of the late Ramakant Munjal. 

So without much ado, we dive into our conversation. Why did he choose to explore renewables? “Climate change is a very big thing in my life.” It is easy to see why he appreciates the efforts of Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish girl who has taken the world by storm with her emotional pitch on climate change. “It made more impact on the world then many of us put together,” says Munjal. 

We can see digital is as close to his heart as is the issue of sustainability. As we start talking about the harmful effects of technology, he mentions the Netflix film The Great Hack, a 2019 documentary about the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal. “The world will never be same again. Every marketing man and industry is thinking of ways to influence the mind of the consumer. If you have some information points on somebody, you can very easily manipulate the way they think," he says. 

We interrupt him and urge him to place the order for the lunch first. As we scan the menu, we infer Japanese cuisine is not very vegetarian friendly. Since Munjal is a Megu-regular, we seek his advice on what to order. He suggests we try the set menu, which offers an assortment of typically Japanese dishes. He orders a helping of omakase, the chef's choice meal at sushi restaurants, for himself. We order a yasai itame (assorted vegetables) and a rock-corn tempura. He chooses a Diet Coke to wash down the food and we settle for some fresh lime and soda.

We get back to discussing the world of internet and social media. “Say, if I am undecided about what to drink — Coke or Pepsi — but someone in Coke knows I like sports, then they will make sure they club Coke and sports for me for every piece of communication directed at me,” he continues. Everybody has a large digital footprint and that becomes larger every time we use phones. "At some time, the world has to wake up to the reality that so much of ourselves is already out there.” 

So who must take the flak for data misuse? The marketing fraternity? “No. It is a reflection of the society, we live in. Where do you draw the line? As a society, we should debate it. Okay, so much of my information is out there but how should that data be used? That's the question that society as a whole needs to ask and answer.” 

The miso soup, a traditional Japanese soup and part of the set menu, arrives. Munjal helps himself to some. It is tangy but light.

We ask him if the debate on the subject is any different in India than it is in, say, Europe, where he spends a lot of his time. Munjal says there is not enough debate in India around data and privacy. “Only after we have a proper debate we will know what India needs. For all you know, India might just say we don’t mind all that personal data getting out.” But, he says, there is a difference in the way younger people and the older generation think about the issue. The lives of younger people are an open book, he explains. “It is the older people who say this is my private life, tumko kya (how does it concern you). It is a generational thing and not an east or west thing. Younger people say I am what I am and my parents, the boss, my company, wife and girlfriend, all know who I am.”

Is he saying the younger generation is lackadaisical about the issue of safety? He cites another Netflix series Living with Yourself, the story of a man who discovers he has been replaced by a cloned version of himself.  “It (social media) is unbelievable. Tik Tok is the great grand-daddy of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and everything put together. But you can’t tell the kids not to be on the net. They need to have the training, the tools and a sense of right and wrong,” he says. 

Munjal is not exactly a social media person himself. “I follow certain subjects on social media, that's about it. I have not seen my Facebook and Instagram accounts for many years now. The reason I am on Twitter is — as someone said — FB is for people you went to school with and Twitter is for the people you wish you went to school with.” He lets out a loud guffaw. The other reason he is not much of a social media person is that he doesn't like to discuss his private life, he tells with a philosophical look.

That said, he does try to make the most of technology. In fact, he conducts his meetings on phone, Zoom and Skype, in that order. And, if all that does not work, he meets people in person. “It’s so much more productive.” For him, it also means less carbon footprint. “If we stop carbon emission today, there is still a one-degree increase in temperature.” 

He says India needs to produce 40 per cent of its energy requirement from renewables by 2040 to avert any drastic change in our climate. Indeed, the world has to completely go off coal by 2030. “Britain is fighting from the front as they have offshore wind. So going off coal was inevitable as they have a lot of wind. But, we in India need to start a discussion on when to stop building coal plants and replace them with renewable.”

The next thing is efficiency. He tells us about a friend's daughter who did not want to go on an annual vacation as she would have had to take a flight. In other words, the younger generation is absolutely aware of the dangers ahead. 

Munjal is enjoying his fish though he has started eating vegetarian food more often than he used to earlier because it has less impact on the environment, he tells us.

We have been talking for over an hour and a half. We decide to wrap up the conversation with a platter of fruits — melon, dragon fruit and plums — but Munjal says he would like the taste of the fish to linger.