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Journalism of Courage
In his bureaucratic career of more than 37 years, newly inducted Election Commissioner Arun Goel is known for his recent work on e-vehicle policy and the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the auto industry, while earlier on he implemented power reforms in his home state of Punjab.
Goel had been Union Heavy Industries Secretary since 2020 and was set to retire on December 31, after turning 60 on December 7. But, he took voluntary retirement from service on November 18 and was appointed as Election Commissioner by President Droupadi Murmu the very next day. He joins Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar and fellow Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey to complete the three-member Commission that had a vacancy since May.
A 1985-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Punjab cadre, Goel had been at the Centre since 2011 in various capacities in the ministries of Urban Development, Finance, Labour & Employment, Culture and finally Heavy Industries.
He holds a post-graduate degree in Development Economics from Churchill College at the University of Cambridge and also trained at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. On a personal note, the Election Commission of India (ECI) website says that Goel “is an outdoor person and an avid traveller, fond of skydiving, scuba diving, white-water rafting and mountain zipping”.
“As Secretary, Heavy Industries, he catalysed the e-vehicle movement in India to a tipping point. He implemented the PLI scheme for the auto industry in record time, getting investments worth Rs 67,690 crore against a target of Rs 42,500 crore and PLI for Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage, getting manufacturing set up for 98GW against a target of 50GW,” reads Goel’s page on the ECI official website.
As Heavy Industries Secretary, Goel worked to create an environment for engineering and research and development, according to the ECI. To that end, he had six “web-based open manufacturing technology innovation platforms” developed so that technical resources and the industry concerned could be brought together on one network, as per the ECI. This was done to crowdsource solutions to boost start-ups. Goel also administered 41 Central Public Sector Enterprises across the country, “from owner’s perspective and directed their operations, disinvestment, closure, revival, restructuring, liquidation, etc”, reads the ECI website.
Before that, he was the Culture Secretary at a time the ministry was focusing on the development of new museums, from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Museum at Red Fort that opened during his tenure to the Prime Minister’s Museum, for which the foundation stone was laid in his time as secretary.
During his service in Punjab, Goel served as the District Election Officer of Ludhiana district (1995-2000) and Bathinda district (1993-’94) “where he smoothly conducted various Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections”, according to the poll body. Then, as Principal Secretary, he steered the masterplans of New Chandigarh and other major towns and implemented “the much-delayed power reforms” in Punjab, the ECI said. He worked on unbundling the electricity board into corporations and introduced e-tendering that led to 25% savings to the exchequer, says the ECI website.
