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India is becoming engine of global growth, says PM Modi at Uttarakhand’s first investors summit
Highlighting rapid growth in the infrastructure sector, the Prime Minister said 10,000 km highways have been built, which is double in comparison with what was done by earlier governments.
India is going through major social and economic change, and transforming into a ‘new India’ that can emerge as the main engine for world economic growth in the coming decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.
He added that the Indian 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.
Addressing 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 economic growth”.
More than 1,400 laws have been repealed to facilitate economic reforms, he said, adding the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is the “biggest tax reform since Independence” that has turned the entire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 27km 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, he said. “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.”
Describing Uttarakhand as an “emerging key link” of the economically 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 signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for a cumulative investment of R70,000 crore.
Earlier in the day, the Uttarakhand Congress held a protest questioning the PM’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 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 PM should speak on the issues of Rafale deal and sky-rocketing prices of fuel in the country,” Pritam Singh said.
State BJP president Ajay Bhatt termed the the Congress’s protest “narrow-mindedness”. “It (the protest) shows that they are against the development of the state and employment to its youth. It’s not BJP’s event but the state’s event.”
