PM Modi Says Spending On Infra, Rural Economy Will Help India Become $5 Trillion Economy
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government has earmarked Rs 100 lakh crore towards infrastructure projects and another Rs. 25 lakh crore to be spent on uplifting the rural economy. Both these allocations will be spent over the next 5 years, Modi said adding that all this spending will help nearly double the size of the Indian economy to US$ 5 trillion by 2024.
Speaking at ASSOCHAM’s centenary celebrations at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, Modi said, “Half a decade back, the economy was nosediving and we negated that by making an effort to usher discipline within the economy."
He added that the strength of the banking and financial sector will act as a catalyst in achieving a $5-trillion economy. Last year FDI inflow gained momentum and today India ranks among the top 10 destinations for FDI.
He told India Inc. that the Indian economy has the resilience to reverse the current slowdown and return to high growth trajectory and urged the corporate sector to make audacious moves to help push up GDP growth.
Modi also highlighted that India has leapfrogged from the 142nd among 190 nations on the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking to 63rd place in three years, and pointed out that India is among the top 10 nations which have in the last three years made continuous improvement in this ranking.
“Despite making arduous efforts, the Government has received a lot of brickbats from a section of people. We have been told that we are the agents of industrialists. But we want to stress that we are the agents of all 130 crore Indians," said Modi.
Modi highlighted that his government will not take any inappropriate action against genuine corporate decisions and has decriminalised a number of minor corporate offences. He said many provisions of Companies Act have been decriminalised and more amendments will follow. Also, companies facing failures have been given exit routes in the insolvency and bankruptcy code (IBC). He further affirmed that the time taken to register companies has been cut down to a few hours from months.
Dynamic changes have been made in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the suggestion of trade and industry. He, however, said the interest of the labour force will also be taken care of.
Modi further added that his government had been successful in achieving 100 per cent “open defecation free” status over a period of 60 months, coinciding with Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.
