This Is An Era Of Fintech And Startups: Ashwini Vaishnaw

In India, this is an era of fintech and startups and today the country has more than one lakh startups which were less than 700 a decade ago, said Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister of railway and minister of electronics and information technology (Meity).

“This is the guarantee of Modi, India will become the third-largest economy till 2027,” said Vaishnaw in an address at the Fintech Festival 2024.

He further added that India’s rank was 11th in Gross domestic production (GDP) in the year 2004 and in the year 2014, it was still 11th. “We lost that entire decade,” Vaishnaw pointed out.

The minister of railway further mentioned that, now, rank of India in terms of economy is fifth and will become the third-largest economy by 2027.

“In the year 2013, every global discourse was very negative about India. Indian economy was termed as fragile-5 and all media outlets used to be pessimistic about India. But, now India is termed as a top-5, bright spot, growing at a constant pace and growth engine of the world. International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, United Nations and every economic commentator is very positive and optimistic about India and putting us among the top five,” mentioned Vaishnaw.

He further added that India was the hub of corruption ten years ago and in 2014, PM Modi came to power and started working on GDP growth, taming inflation and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).

“Now, when India is the fifth-largest economy, we can build this much infrastructure. The number of AIIMS and IITs has doubled in the last ten years. Just imagine what kind of capital expenditure we will be able to make when India becomes the third-largest economy,” the minister said.

He further emphasised that India’s growth story was possible because PM Modi always focussed on the poorest of the poor.

“India used to import 99 per cent of the smartphones. Now, it exports 98 per cent of its smartphones, where 11 million smartphones were exported last year. And, there will be export of 50 to 60 million smartphones in the upcoming year. The electronics manufacturing industry employs 10 lakh people, and in the upcoming year, it will employ 25 lakh people,” he said.

Citing the rampant corruption in the previous governments he said that nobody talks about scams now, every scam like the 2G scam, Commonwealth Games scam and coal scam has been left behind.

Vaishnaw further emphasised the initiatives the government is taking for the social upliftment of women, “Our government made a 360-degree change by enabling women-led growth. Earlier, everybody talked about inclusion development and inclusive development which includes women. Now, we are working on developing a system and programme where women can lead the development process. This is a strategic shift from how women can be included to how women can be leaders.”

Highlighting the success of poverty alleviation programmes he said, “The population of Europe is 42 crore whereas we have opened 52 crore PM Jan-Dhan accounts in the last ten years, which means we have created PM Jan-Dhan accounts more than the entire population of Europe. Houses built under PM Awas Yojana are more than the entire population of Japan.”

He also mentioned that 13 crore tapped water connections were provided under PM Jal Jeewan Mission which is more than the entire population of Japan which is 11 crore. 

“Everyone in the world is saying that this is the best poverty alleviation programme and this is the best story of inclusive development. And, the result of this is that 25 crore people have come out of poverty. Now, India is free from extreme poverty,” the minister of electronics and information technology emphasised.

Mentioning the recent legislations he said that PM Modi has repealed more than 1200 old laws and brought new laws which are in coherence with the present era. 

“Last year India added a railway line of 5,200 kilometres which is more than the entire railway network of Switzerland. This year also, we have added 4,972 kilometres of railway network till now and we will add 5,500 km of railway line by the end of this year. This implies that we have added 15 km every day," he stated.

He also highlighted that earlier, people used to only talk about women's reservation bill but now, the women's reservation bill has already been passed.