E-Paper
'Aatmanirbhar Defence, trade pacts...': PM Modi presents 8-year report card
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of India's efforts to help countries facing shortage of vaccines and medicines during the peak of Covid-19 pandemic. He also spoke on India's trade pacts with countries like Australia and UAE.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hailed the government's reforms to mark the eight years of his government in power. The prime minister tweeted three news pieces highlighting the government's achievements in making India 'Atmanirbhar' or self-reliant.
'India emerging stronger from global crisis'
The article speaks about the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' slogan which the prime minister coined during the peak of Covid-19 pandemic. It spoke about India's initiative of exporting medicines to 100 countries and dispatching more than 20 crore jabs to the needy countries.
Crediting the self-reliant India vision, it spoke on how India's exports hit record highs while foreign investment in India reached record level.
"Clearly, the world wants to trade with India and considers it a reliable partner in the post-COVID world order," the article read.
India also signed an economic cooperation and trade agreement with Australia, the first trade pact with a developed country more than a decade. Under this agreement, bilateral trade in goods and services is expected to rise from $27 billion to $45 billion in five years. According to the pact, Australia is offering zero duty access to India for about 96.4 per cent of exports from day one. India will benefit from preferential market access provided by Australia on 100% of its tariff lines.
Besides Australia, India has also signed a trade pact with UAE. As per the pact, India will benefit from preferential market access provided by the UAE on over 97% of its tariff lines.
‘India as a global power’
The Narendra Modi government has been hailed for its efforts to protect the overseas Indians and Indian interests across the world.
Be it the Operation Ganga which brought back 22,500 Indians from war-hit Ukraine to Vande Bharat Mission under which the government brought back Indians from foreign countries during the pandemic, India has earned accolades for its rescue and evacuation missions in the times of distress.
'Atmanirbhar Defence'
During the past eight years of Modi government in power, the defence sector has witnessed several reforms to secure the country's borders.
There have been several reforms to ensure a strong domestic defence manufacturing ecosystem. The government has also focused on ensuring that India becomes a major exporter of arms. "From setting up defence corridors to corporatising the ordnance factories to increase in FDI in the defence sector, many steps have helped in the pace of development," PM Modi wrote.
