India’s progress unparalleled: PM
INVESTORS SUMMIT Modi says India will emerge as the main engine of global economic growth
DEHRADUN: India is going through a major social and economic change, transforming into a New India that emerge as the main engine of the world economic growth in the coming decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said adding that country’s economy has stabilised over the last few years, fiscal deficit has come down, and inflation is under control.
“The scale and speed at which reforms are happening in India are unprecedented. We have taken 10,000 steps to usher in reforms. Thanks to this, India has made a significant jump of 42 points in the global ‘ease of doing business’ index,” Modi said here.
Addressing the delegates on the inaugural day of the two-day Uttarakhand Investors Summit in Dehradun, Modi said, “The fiscal deficit has gone down, the food inflation has been checked and the economy is strong. Every major institution in the world is predicting that in the coming decades, India is going to be the driving engine of world growth”.
More than 1400 laws have been repealed to facilitate economically nomic reforms, he said, adding the Goods and Services Tax (GST) had been the “biggest tax reform since independence” that turned the entire country into a single market and had widened the tax base.
He said infrastructure development was taking place at a “record speed” with more than 10,000 kilometres of national highways built in the last one year. “It means over 27 km roads built per day. This rate is double as compared to road development during previous governments.”
The aviation sector too is witnessing a similar boom.
“The work on building 100 new airports and helipads is currently in progress. Similarly, the work of creating 100 national waterways is in the offing,” he said.
Describing Uttarakhand as an “emerging key link” of the eco- resurgent New India, he said it is “opportune time for investors” to make investments in the hill state, “which is now bubbling with youthful energy as it is completing its 18 years”.
Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said his government has already signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for a cumulative investment of ₹70,000 crore.
Earlier in the day, the Uttarakhand Congress held a protest questioning Prime Minister’s silence on Rafale deal and on rising fuel prices on Sunday in city’s Gandhi Park. Congress state unit head Pritam Singh who led the protest, accused PM Modi of remaining silent on the questions on Rafale deal and rising fuel prices.
“The (ruling) Bharatiya Janata Party has been saying that the Congress should have supported the Investors Summit instead of holding a protest. We want to tell them that we are not against development of the state, but we want that Prime Minister should speak on the issues of Rafale deal and sky-rocketing prices of fuel in the country,” state Congress president Pritam Singh said.