Campaign to run down electric vehicles sad: Goyal
New Delhi, Sep 7 : Some companies in India are engaged in a campaign to run down electric vehicles in order to promote their hybrid cars in the country, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday, adding that it is sad that hybrid cars are being promoted at the expense of electric cars.
Addressing the Global Mobility Summit here, the Minister said that the companies pushing hybrid vehicles are actually promoting technology that is "second best".
"We saw the progression from petrol cars to hybrid cars, and it is extremely sad that there is a campaign to promote hybrid cars at the expense of electric cars. I urge those companies to quickly make electric cars instead of hawking the market with intermediate products," Goyal said.
"The sad part is that the campaign is being run by companies which don't make electric cars. To sell their hybrid cars they are willing to compromise with the best. They want us to settle for the second best just because they don't make electric cars.
"Gone are the days that India will settle for anything which is second best. We want nothing but the best," he added.
Declaring that he is the owner of two hybrid cars, the Minister said these brought "no savings whatsoever".
"So let's look for the best and move out of the psychology and psyche of subsidies and grants and government handholding everything," he said.
The Minister said that considering the cost dynamics in the country and that people deserve the best at affordable prices, the effort should be to make technology the driver of programming, "so that India moves to be a 100 per cent producer of electric vehicles by 2030".
Goyal also said the Centre has decided to bring all the logistics in the government under a common framework to enable more integrated planning under the Commerce Ministry.
"All of us, railways, road, transport, shipping and aviation are working in our own individual areas, but planning for logistics sector in a holistic manner, particularly, with the view to bring down the cost to 7-8 per cent from 12-14 per cent," he said.
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Intermediate student jumps to death in Andhra Pradesh
Somaladoddi (Andhra Pradesh), Jan 23 (PTI): A 16-year-old boy jumped to death from the third floor of his junior college on Thursday here in Anantapur district, said a police official.
Anantapur Rural sub-divisional police officer T Vekateshulu said the boy just returned to college from Sankranti holidays on Thursday morning and died by suicide at 11:55 am.
"After the holidays, this boy came to the college around 9:30 am on Thursday. While the class was going on, around 11:55 am, he suddenly came out from the classroom and jumped from the third floor," Venkateshulu told PTI.
Immediately, the college management shifted the injured boy to a local hospital where doctors examined him and declared that he was dead. Police said the intermediate student hailed from Ramapuram village of Batthenapalli mandal in Sri Sathyasai District.
The suicide of the boy pursuing intermediate first year at Narayana Junior College was captured on CCTV cameras. The recording shows him rising from his bench and straightaway proceeding to jump from the third floor unperturbed, police said.
Meanwhile, police are taking a complaint from the boy's parents to register a case and investigate further.
AP: Intermediate student jumps to death, CCTV captures incident
— The Siasat Daily (@TheSiasatDaily) January 23, 2025
A 16-year-old student died by suicide after jumping from the third floor of his junior college building on Thursday, January 23 in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh (AP).
The victim has been identified as… pic.twitter.com/aKEAOEmdOJ
