TIME FOR BOLD DECISIONS AND INVESTMENTS: PM TO INDIA INC

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that it was time for tough decisions and bold investments even as India fights multiple crises ranging from the Covid-19 outbreak to cyclones, earthquake, fire, and locust attacks.

He said, in a videoconference, it was time to shun a conservative approach and move to plug-and-play mode from one of command and control.

Speaking at the 95th plenary session of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Modi said: “This is not the time for command and control but plug and play; this is not the time to be conservative but time for bold decisions and approach.” This is the second time the prime minister reached out to industrialists this month and this comes at a time when global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has affirmed its rating on India’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit at the lowest investment grade with a stable outlook.

It said the country’s economy remained “a long-term outperformer versus peers at a similar level of income”. The ratings agency projected the economy would contract 5 per cent in the current financial year, but would grow 8.5 per cent in 2021-22.

Modi stressed the global Covid-19 situation needed to be turned into an opportunity and the country required to become self-reliant and opt for aggressive judicious import substitution. “We need to make it a turning point and form a self-reliant India. The country needs to stand on its own feet and we need to reduce dependence on imports. Eventually, we need to be on

the lookout for exporting the items we have been able to substitute for imports,” he said.

Modi said manufacturing in West Bengal needed to be revived and Kolkata could become the leader of the east. With less than a year to go before the West Bengal Assembly elections, Modi, while addressing the members of the Kolkataheadquartered chamber, invoked the name of Swami Vivekananda, who urged Indians to use their own produce and find markets in other countries, and Rabindranath Tagore’s “Nuton Juger Bhore” (In the dawn of a new age) to inspire self-reliance.

He said the aspiration for selfreliance in manufacturing medical equipment, defence, minerals, edible oils, fertiliser, electronics including chip manufacturing, solar panels, batteries and aviation had always been there and asked industrialists to seize opportunities in developing sectors in the country. “We have now made the coal and minerals sector competitive and industrialists need to come forward,” he said.

Last month, as part of the ~20-trillion financial package, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ended the government’s monopoly in coal by allowing commercial mining on a revenue-sharing basis.

The move, according to the Centre, would introduce competition and transparency in an opaque sector.

“THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR COMMAND AND CONTROL BUT PLUG AND PLAY. THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE CONSERVATIVE BUT TIME FOR BOLD DECISIONS AND APPROACH”

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister