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Modi’s vow: 3rd term, 3rd largest economy
The PM said the world is keenly watching India’s progress, and the country has to continue its winning streak as its “development journey is unstoppable” now
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday promised to make “Bharat” the third largest economy in his third term (2024-29), and asserted that his “good governance” model with “good intent” and the “right policies” would make India a developed nation.
Delivering a speech in Hindi at the inauguration of the International Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC) in Delhi, which has been named Bharat Mandapam, he recalled his government’s track record of transforming India into the fifth largest economy in the world from the 10th position at the beginning of his first term (2014-19), or, as he put it to the audience — “when you first gave me this responsibility”.
He reiterated that he was not pulling this number out of a hat.
“On the basis of this track record, I want to assure the country that in my third term, Bharat will be among the top three economies of the world,” he said. “Aur ye Modi ki guarantee hai [And this is Modi’s guarantee],” he added.
“I will assure the country that in my third term, Bharat’s journey of development will be even faster,” he said.
India is the fastest growing major economy in the world. The economy grew at 7.2% in the fiscal year 2022-23, positively surprising most analysts and exceeding the government’s own projection of 7% GDP growth. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday upwardly revised India’s growth forecast for calendar year 2023 by 0.2 percentage points to 6.1% from its April projection of 5.9%.
The PM said the world is keenly watching India’s progress, and the country has to continue its winning streak as its “development journey is unstoppable” now.
“Today, Bharat is progressing fast on the principle of think big, dream big, act big, and we are doing that,” Modi said, giving examples of the construction of the world’s largest solar park, the highest rail bridge, a 10,000-feet-long tunnel, the highest motorable road, the biggest statue, and the world’s largest cricket stadium in the country.
The PM said that India is today witnessing an infrastructure revolution as in the last nine years, ₹34 lakh crore has been spent on infrastructure creation. “This year too, capital expenditure is kept at ₹10 lakh crore,” he said. “India is working at an unprecedented speed and scale,” he said. In the last nine years, electrification of 40,000km of railway lines took place as compared to just 20,000 in the past seven decades before his government came to power, he said.
Before 2014, 600m per month of Metro lines were laid, while today 6km Metro lines are being laid every month; today, the country has 725,000km rural roads compared to just 400,000km before 2014, he said.
Modi said he is aware of the nation’s strengths and was confident that India can become a developed country, and also eliminate poverty. Citing a report by the Niti Aayog on a multidimensional index of poverty, he said 135 million people have come out of poverty in India in just five years. He cited international agencies saying that India has overcome extreme poverty because of the government’s policies over the last nine years.
The government’s farsightedness, “nimble-footed” approach, and focus on people at the “bottom of the pyramid” saved millions of Indians from the cost-of-living crisis, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in July last year, citing a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report on poverty.
The IECC complex has been developed at a cost of about ₹2,700 crore and is spread over 123 acres. Earlier, in the morning, the PM participated in a ceremonial ritual and dedicated the complex to the nation and also met workers who were involved in its construction. It is the country’s largest meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) destination. The venue is expected to host the G20 Leadership Summit in September this year. On Wednesday, Modi also released two commemorative postage stamps and coins of ₹100 and ₹75 on India’s chairmanship of the G20.
“No society or country can progress if it thinks in silos. Today, this Bharat Mandapam is witness to the fact that our government is working holistically with a long-term vision. In order to provide access to the convention centre, India is giving e-conference visas to 160 countries,” he said, emphasising the need for a robust ecosystem — airports, metro networks and hotels — to fully utilise the convention centre.
Highlighting massive construction work in Lutyens’ Delhi, including the new Parliament building and government offices to meet the needs of an aspiring India, Modi said, “We have to change the work culture and also the work environment.”
He announced the construction of “the world’s largest” museum in the Capital – ‘Yuge Yugeen Bharat’ [Eternal Bharat].
