Life has come full circle, says Milind Deora in his maiden Rajya Sabha speech. Read full text

Shiv Sena MP Milind Deorain his maiden Rajya Sabha speech, said that life has come to a full circle. Former Congress leader who ended his family’s 55-year association with the party in January, recalled how Shiv Sena founder Thackeray Ball supported his father Murli Deora to become the mayor of Mumbai 47 years ago. He mentioned how now after 47 years, the same party has sent him to Rajya Sabha at the age of 47 years.
“In many ways, life has come a full circle because in 1977, 47 years ago, late Bala Saheb Thackeray supported my late father become the mayor of Mumbai.And today, 47 years later, at the age of 47, the president of Shiv Sena and Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde, has enabled me to represent Mumbai and Maharashtra in Rajya Sabha,” he said.
Deora also highlighted the “four Cs” which, according to him, were of concern for the country. The four factors outlined by him included: “China, City and Commuting and Climate Change.”

Read full text of Milind Deora’s maiden speech in Rajya Sabha here:
Thank you very much, sir. I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about the ministry of new and renewable energy on an unprecedented occasion. Sir, I would like to say a few words about this ministry after listening to Sagarika ji’s speech.
This is a ministry which is close to everyone’s hearts. This is a ministry which determines the future of our country. And I would only urge this house, we can score political points, that’s one thing we all must do.
If one state is doing well, better than the other, that’s a good thing. But let us look at the facts and although this ministry is called Renewable Energy, we should be careful not to renew the rhetoric every time. That’s very important, sir.
Sir, today, if you look at this budget, I want to firstly congratulate the finance minister that 19,000 crore rupees have been allocated to this ministry in this budget, which is double from last year’s budget for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. In fact, 8,500 crores of that 19,000 crores is allocated only for solar energy. My esteemed colleague spoke about wholesale energy and retail energy.
What do you and I, the common person, how do we benefit from this ministry? Sir, today, I would like to congratulate the Minister. A few days ago, I asked a question about this issue. The Prime Minister’s rooftop solar project is a very good, very beautiful example where you and I as individuals can benefit from this ministry, from the various schemes at retail levels in our very households.
And Minister, through you, sir, Minister, I would like to draw your attention to this issue. Just yesterday, the Maharashtra government’s MSEDCL company, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, issued a press release yesterday that the Prime Minister launched this scheme five months ago. Within five months, Maharashtra is playing a very important leadership role with this scheme and using the Prime Minister’s rooftop solar initiative, we have already surpassed the 100 megawatt mark.
You will be very happy to know that. Sir, there are many issues. We can again talk about issues here but it is very important to study what is the progress made and this is not a comparison progress to say what the previous government did and what is this government doing.
Is India moving forward in greening our economy or not? That is the moot question before all of us in this house today. And that is what we owe to future generations. Sir, through you, I would like to present some figures which show the increase in renewable energy capacity between 2014 and 2024.
Today, India’s installed non-fossil fuel capacity has surged 400% in the last eight and a half years. 400% which has reached, now we have reached 203 gigawatts. The installed renewable energy capacity has increased by 128% in the last 10 years.
I would like to present three very important examples. Wind energy, in 2014 India’s total capacity was 21,000 megawatts and in 2024 it has become 47,000 megawatts which means that in 10 years it has increased by more than two times. Solar energy, in 2014 it was only 2,821 megawatts but now in 2024 the capacity has increased to 83,000 megawatts.
Niraj Bhai, the most beautiful example is converting waste into energy. Electricity generation capacity from waste has increased from 140 megawatts in 2014 to 343 megawatts in 2024. Today, we talk of many global indexes but it is very important to note across several non-partisan, non-political indexes.
Today, India ranks fourth globally for renewable power capacity additions. We rank fourth in wind power and fifth in solar power. IRENA, IRENA, is the world’s largest agency.
The name of that agency is International Renewable Agency. According to IRENA, India’s renewable energy sector can create 30 lakh new jobs by 2030 out of which 10 lakh jobs, that one-third will be in solar energy sector. Locally and for that local, how do you create that manufacturing job? One is on the generation side but I again congratulate this government for a bold vision to ensure that the equipment that is used to harness solar energy which until recently the entire supply chain was being dominated by China, everything from the rare earth, the minerals to the photovoltaic cells, today there is a lot of production happening in India.
And I would urge the minister and I would urge the finance minister also, we must expand the scope of production linked incentives to create more manufacturing especially of high efficiency solar PV modules in India. The Union cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has made a huge PLI investment. In the first phase, I think almost $3 billion in two tranches have been allocated to give subsidies for the manufacturing of solar equipment right here in India.
So we become self-dependent and we are not dependent on countries that could become hostile towards us. Yes, it is Atmanirbhar, it is a good thing, it is creating jobs here. Why should we use our growth and greening of the economy to subsidize the economies of China? I am sure nobody in this house would want that regardless of their political ideology.
The second phase of the Prime Minister’s high efficiency solar PV module scheme aims to install 65 gigawatts of annual manufacturing capacity right here in India. So I want to congratulate this government. A lot of work has been done to double budget allocations to new and renewable energy and to reduce our dependence on countries like China.
I would like to say something a little away from this ministry. I was very happy to see in the budget that the Minister mentioned the development of small modular reactors. This may not continue directly to this ministry but sir today I believe it is very important for all of us as Indians to be very open-minded about reforms in nuclear energy.
This is what world over, the developing world, the developed world, countries like America, countries in Europe and China, they are moving towards nuclear energy to increase the green share of their energy mix. I would like to present a very important starting statistic about China. By 2035, China will double the contribution of nuclear energy in its electricity generation, to 10%.
Today, China’s share of nuclear energy is only 5% but by 2060, they will take it to almost 20%. We must ensure therefore that we reform the nuclear sector and lead in this space and not just follow. So with these few words, I want to congratulate the government, this ministry and the finance ministry for allocating as much money as required to make India self-dependent in the renewable space.
Thank you.