In the sixth session of the TEDxKanke Webinar Series titled ‘The Rise of a New World’, the speaker for the event on May 26 was Prashant Jain, Joint MD and CEO, JSW Energy Limited and he spoke on the Power Sector- a key driver for future development.
The series which was started on May 2 is slated to host more than 10 speakers in one month from the fields of technology, innovation, leadership, creativity and art and culture of national and international acclaim. The sessions are being streamed live on the facebook page fb.me/tedxkanke20.
Jain is a mechanical engineer with more than two decades of experience in areas of plant maintenance, project management, corporate strategy and development, policy advocacy and cross border operations.
“There is a technological shift taking place globally with people shifting from thermal power to renewable power. A lot of technological interventions are taking place in order to reduce the transmission and distribution losses. The government is working on various reforms like new tariff policy, direct subsidy will be given to the consumer, digital intervention by installing digital meters and prepaid meters, disinvestment of the distribution companies and also commercial mining. These are the powerful reforms which are very important for a successful sector where the investment can grow and the government is working towards it,” said Jain.
“I believe that a right kind of framework is in place and a lot of reforms will be seen in this sector. Very few companies are in a good financial situation at this point of time and JSW Energy is one of them. The company will play a very meaningful role in helping the power business grow and a target for the next three to four years is to become 10 gigawatt company. And in another five years timeframe from 10 gigawatt to 20 gugawatt,” added Jain.
The speaker on May 22 was Manish Kumar Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, National Skill Development Corporation and Former Secretary GoI (retired IAS) who spoke on future skills of workforce in India.
Talking about bridging the skill gap between academics and industries Kumar said, “We are following industry 2.0 while the world is running on industry 5.0 and too much importance is being given to degrees. Life has changed massively. It does not require huge chunk of knowledge but important pieces of information that work on the go. The new education policy is changing gears and in future we will see courses better suited to match the skills required for the industry. We need to get over the British culture that gave weightage to clerks.”
“Presently India finds itself in a positive place. Along with the demographic window, this is a wealth creation moment for our people. A recent example is of South Korea which entered the graphic window of opportunity in 1950 and their per capita has multiplied exponentially. China entered such a window in 1950 and their growth is visible. India entered in 2005 and our per capita income has grown by 4- 5 times and will continue until 2050,” added Kumar.
Kumar also said that India has proven itself as a giant powerhouse and knowledge hub of IT. “Right now we are experiencing the infancy stage of this technology and it is only going to get better. This adds to the multiplication factor that we will observe in our income levels in the coming years,” he said.