New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe, impacting many things, but it has failed to impact the aspirations and ambitions of 1.3 billion Indians.
While delivering keynote address to the third leadership summit of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), PM Modi said that the pandemic is testing the world’s collective resilience and the present situation demands a fresh mindset.
Talking about the way ahead the Prime Minister said that the country is focussing on ramping up capacities, securing the poor and future proofing the citizens.
Referring to various steps taken to ramp up facilities for fighting COVID and to increase awareness amongst the citizens, the Prime Minister said all such early measures ensured that the country with 1.3 billion people and limited resources has one of the lowest death rates per million in the World.
He expressed his happiness that India’s business community, especially the small business has been proactive. Starting from almost nothing, they made us the second largest PPE kits manufacturer in the World, he said.
He said there have been far-reaching reforms in the country in recent times which have made the business easier and red-tapism lesser.
Apart from that, the PM said that work is actively underway on the world’s largest housing program and that the renewable energy infrastructure is being expanded.
He said India is creating a unique digital model to build a national digital health mission.
Modi said that the pandemic has shown the world that decision on developing global supply chains should be based not only on costs. “They should also be based on trust. Along with affordability of geography, companies are now also looking for reliability and policy stability. India is the location which has all of these qualities,” he said.
In addition to this, he said India is becoming one of the favourable destinations for Foreign Investment.
He said be it America, the Europe, Australia or the Gulf, the world believes in India. “We have received over 20 billion dollars of foreign investment flows during this year. Google, Amazon and Mubadala Investments have announced long-term plans for India,” the PM said in his speech.
The Prime Minister referred to the mandatory e- platform based ‘faceless assessment’ and said it will go a long way in helping citizens along with the Tax-payers charter. The continued regulatory reforms in bond markets ensure improved ease of access for investors, he said.
He said FDI into India rose by 20 percent in 2019, when the global FDI inflows fell by 1 Percent and that this shows the success of our FDI regime.
He also referred to Production Linked Incentive schemes launched for- mobile & electronics, medical devices, pharma sectors along with reforms in Agriculture.
While concluding his speech, the PM described India as a young country with 65% population less than 35 years old which is aspirational and decided to take the nation to new heights.
He said India is a country with political stability and political continuity and that it is committed to democracy and diversity.
-ARK
