New Delhi, Feb 17 (FN Agency) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday stated that the Government is focussing on the empowerment of the poor so that they can contribute to national development. Addressing the Economic Times Global Business Summit in New Delhi , Mr Modi said, “the government re-imagined how to improve welfare delivery to the poor”. “The government has given pucca houses to three crore poor families in the last nine years, which reflects the government’s dedication for the upliftment of the poor” he said. Talking about Direct Benefit Transfer, the Prime Minister said “Our government has so far transferred 28 lakh crore rupees via DBT under different schemes”. Modi said that 10 crore toilets were constructed after 2014 taking sanitation coverage from below 40 percent to 100 percent in rural areas. Giving examples of aspirational districts the Prime Minister said in 2014 more than 100 districts were very backward. “We reimagined this concept of backwardness and made these districts aspirational districts” he said. The Prime Minister said. We stopped the practice of viewing infrastructure in silos and reimagined infrastructure building as a grand strategy. “Today, highways are being built in India at a speed of 38 km per day and more than 5 km of rail lines are being laid every day” He added that India’s port capacity is going to reach 3000 MTPA in the coming two years. Compared to 2014, the number of operational airports has doubled from 74 to 147″ he said.
On road infrastructure, he said, “In these 9 years, about 3.5 lakh kilometres of rural roads and 80 thousand kilometres of national highways have been built.” Modi said In these 9 years, houses of 3 crore poor have been built.” On Gatishakti National Master Plan, he said it is not only giving speed to the construction of infrastructure but also giving emphasis to area development and people development”, Throwing light on the infrastructure in India’s aviation sector, the Prime Minister informed that earlier, a large chunk of the airspace was restricted for defence which led to aeroplanes taking more time to reach their destination. To find a solution to this problem, the Prime Minister elaborated that the government has engaged with the armed forces which resulted in 128 air routes being opened up for the civilian aircraft movement today. He noted that this led to flight paths becoming shorter thereby saving both time and fuel and about 1 lakh tonnes of CO2 emissions have also been reduced with this decision. He said India’s contribution of 2 percent of the global mobile data traffic in 2012, compared to 75 percent contributed by the western market, but in 2022, India had a 21% share of global mobile data traffic while North America and Europe were restricted to only one-fourth share. He further noted that today, 40 percent of the world’s real-time digital payments take place in India.
Prime Minister informed that more than 6 lakh kilometres of optical fiber have been laid in the country, the number of mobile manufacturing units has increased manifold and the rate of internet data in the country has reduced 25 times, the cheapest in the world. Elaborating on the example of tax collections, the Prime Minister highlighted the country’s gross tax revenue was approximately Rs 11 lakh crore in 2013-14, but in 2023-24 it is estimated to be more than Rs 33 lakh crore. He credited the reduction in taxes for the increase in gross tax revenue and said, “In 9 years, the gross tax revenue has increased by 3 times and this has happened when we have reduced the tax rates.” The Prime Minister underlined that India’s prosperity is the world’s prosperity and India’s growth is the world’s growth. He emphasised that the theme of One World, One Family, One Future chosen for G-20 contains solutions to many challenges of the world. The Prime Minister said that during these three years of war and natural calamity, India and Indians have demonstrated tremendous determination. “India has shown the world what it means to be antifragile. Where earlier there used to be the talk of Fragile Five, now India is being identified with antifragile. “India has shown the world how to convert calamities into opportunities” he added.