NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday claimed that his government has succeeded in eliminating the mentality that ‘poverty’ is a virtue. Citing the obstacles that were in the path of prosperity and investment during the previous government, Modi said, “The present government has not only been successful in eliminating the mentality that poverty is a virtue, but also is making record investments in modern infrastructure.”
Speaking in a post-budget webinar on ‘Infrastructure and Investment’, he said the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan is going to change the face of India’s infrastructure and its multimodal logistics. Giving equal importance to the development of social infrastructure, the PM said that the country needs to strengthen the social infrastructure along with the strength of the physical infrastructure.
The PM said, “We consider infrastructure development as the driving force of the economy; India will achieve the target of becoming a developed nation by 2047 by following this path.”He emphasised that India now needs to improve its speed and move in top gear as the time of new responsibilities, new possibilities and bold decisions for every stakeholder has come. Highlighting the country’s capex plans, he said it has increased five times compared to 2013-14 and the government is moving with a target of investing Rs 110 lakh crore under the National Infrastructure Pipeline.“And this year’s general budget is aimed at giving new energy to infrastructure with a focus on creating modern infrastructure in all areas such as roads, railways, ports and airports,” the PM said.
He said the average annual construction of national highways has nearly doubled since 2014. Mod further noted that the electrification of railway lines has increased to 4,000 route kilometres from 600 route kilometres earlier and the number of airports increased to 150 from 74 in 2014. He added that 100 critical projects have been prioritised with a whopping allotment of Rs 75,000 crore.
Elaborating on the role of states, the PM said that about one-year extension of interest-free loans up to 50 years loans and the budgetary expenditure for this has also been increased to the tune of 30 per cent. “With quality and multimodal infrastructure, our logistics cost is going to reduce further in the days to come. This will have a positive impact on the goods made in India, on the competence of our products. Along with the logistics sector, there will be a lot of improvement in ease of living and ease of doing business,” he informed the Participants, including 700 CEOs through Webinar. The PM also stressed the need of having a mechanism for skill forecasting that will help small and big industries from different sectors.