Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that India was able to prioritise saving lives during coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and as a result, the situation has changed for the better. The world’s faith in India, which was built over the last six years, has strengthened over the past few months, he said.
“The faith that the world placed in India in the last 6 years has further strengthened in the past few months. Be it FDI or FPI – foreign investors have made record investments in India and are continuing to do that,” PM?Modi said at the inauguration of FICCI’s (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) 93rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual Convention.
Further, the PM said that reforms introduced by the current government are aimed at breaking the walls between different sectors. “We have introduced some reforms with the aim of breaking walls between various sectors. These walls hamper development,” the PM said, adding that the Farm laws is one such example.
“We’d seen walls between agriculture and other areas associated with it – be it agriculture infrastructure, food processing, storage or cold chain. All walls and obstacles are being removed now. After reforms, farmers will get new markets, options and more benefits of technology,” he said.
Another example of the government’s planned and integrated approach towards building bridges between different sectors is that of reforms introduced in the banking sector, the PM said. “We have ensured everyone’s financial inclusion through changes in the banking sector. We joined banks and made cheap mobiles and mobile data available to poor. Today, direct benefit transfer (DBT) system, that aims to transfer subsidies directly to the people through their bank accounts, is working in our country,” he said.
“At the time of Covid-19, when other nations were dependent on cheques and postal services to transfer money, India could send thousands of rupees to its citizens with a click. This was happening even at the time of lockdown, when the banks were shut. We have received global appreciation for this model and experts have advised other nations to learn from it,” he said.
The theme of the annual convention this year is ‘Inspired India’, the Prime Minister’s Office’s (PMO) said on Friday. PM Modi also launched the FICCI Annual Expo 2020. This will provide an opportunity to exhibitors from across the globe to showcase their products and advance their business prospects, the PMO had added.
Over the three days of the convention, more than 10,000 delegates from across the world and Union ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, S Jaishankar and Ravi Shankar Prasad will address the conference.
Finance commission chairman NK Singh and NITI aayog chairman Amitabh Kant will also address the FICCI AGM.