‘India’s decade has dawned’, says Devendra Fadnavis at Pune Viksit Bharat Brand Ambassador event (Ld)

Pune, March 9 (IANS) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said here on Saturday that India’s decade has dawned in the last 10 years and the country got onto the global centre-stage due to the economic transformation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing the ‘Viksit Bharat Brand Ambassador – Viksit Pune Conclave’ here, Fadnavis said that in 2013, India was ranked among the ‘Fragile Five’ economies in the world but under PM Modi, everybody is saying that “we are the brightest spot”, and now among top five globally.

This transformation has come in a record, in the next five years, India shall be the third largest by 2027, and by 2047, we shall be a fully developed nation with a thriving strong economy, the BJP leader said.

Devendra Fadnavis said the GDP growth under the UPA was around 4.5 per cent, now it is 8.4 per cent, inflation has reduced from mostly double to a single digit around 5 per cent, FDI inflows increased from $36 billion to $85 billion, exports shot up from $300 billion to $770 billion, FOREX reserves zoomed from $270 billion to $600 billion, and Current Account Deficit which was 5.1 per cent of GDP, now stands at a reasonable 2 per cent of GDP.

Previously, for setting up any project, the industrialists had to get environmental approval which would take at least two years, which is now around 4 months, and we are still trying to bring it down.

“All this is due to transparency and a political will… earlier there were many scams which rocked the country, crony capitalism, no political will, policy paralysis, and India’s rating and FDI plummeted. We are now out of it thanks to PM Modi’s vision of ‘Reform, Perform, Transform, and Inform’, and ensuring the welfare reaches the last man,” said Fadnavis.

Explaining PM Modi’s vision for a Viksit Bharat (Developed India) through ‘Modinomics’, Fadnavis said that PM Modi has brought welfare to the poorest of the poor and joined them into the national mainstream. Earlier, 60 crore people had no access to banking, now they have got bank accounts due to the Jan Dhan scheme, the PM Mudra Yojana to ‘fund the unfunded’ has helped people get loans without security and guarantees, benefitting 30 crore people.

The Maharashtra Deputy CM said that PM Modi ensured “insuring the uninsured” through a cheap insurance cover to the poor, while in the last 9 years, 25 crore people have been lifted above the poverty line, which is a world record.

He said the country has seen unprecedented growth in all sectors paving the way for a Viksit Bharat through speeding up of the economy, building 11 crore toilets, 3 crore houses, giving electricity and piped water to homes, boost to retail and services, creating jobs and increasing people’s prosperity, putting it on the track as the world’s fastest growing economy now.

Fadnavis said that from around 50 per cent previously, now only three per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty and this will also be tackled in the next couple of years.

He said that the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ has reduced the cost of doing business drastically couple with scrapping archaic laws and decriminalising certain aspects that occur in the routine course of doing business, brought in investor-friendly policies and a digital transformation in which the ordinary masses like street vendors and helpers are involved.

Earlier, Fadnavis said, the entrepreneurs had to seek 146 approvals which took 3 years, and now, it has been brought down to 25 clearances, and in just 3-4 months, PM Modi brought in ease of doing business and cost of doing business improved drastically. All this has led to a formal economy, where in the past, nearly 50 per cent transactions were done in cash but now, GST and digitalisation have removed cash dealings and ensured full transparency, he pointed out.

The Deputy CM cited other things like ‘GatiShakti’, infra-mapping where all levels of infrastructure are put on a single platform, capital expenditure has increased from Rs 2 lakh-crore to Rs 10 lakh-crore now, 91 km village roads and 34 km highways are being built daily, exports have shot up to a record Rs 766 billion, and with ‘Make in India’ and ‘Make for India’ initiatives, an entire ecosystem for Viksit Bharat is firmly in place to achieve the next level.

The number of airports in the country has doubled — from 74 to 149 — in 10 years, and the country is going to import a large number of aircraft in the coming years.

The PM told Boeing and Airbus that India needs more aircraft, the country has increased the number of airports and also fliers but put a condition that they should manufacture their aircraft here, which they have agreed. In FDI, India is racing ahead, and Maharashtra is the leader as per the RBI’s latest data, which shows this state getting more FDI than the combined figures of Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, and the PM sees Maharashtra as the growth engine of the Indian economy, the Maharashtra Deputy CM said.

Fadnavis further said that the MSME contribution to the GDP is now 30 per cent and it is significant as the MSME sector is a huge employment generator, 99 per cent of mobiles which were earlier imported are now manufactured in India, and the country is the world’s third largest automobile market.

On the global arena, India is redefining the world order, last year, the G-20 programmes were organised in 60 countries and later the New Delhi Declaration was approved unanimously, proving that India can lead the world.

Fadnavis touched upon several other facets of the 10 years of PM Modi-led government and urged all the people to become the Viksit Bharat Brand Ambassadors by excelling in every field or sector that they are serving or working in.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)

–IANS

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