The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) administration published a nine-year huge book on Saturday, 9 years of Seva, Sushasan Garib Kalyan, to commemorate the event of completing nine years in power.
Serving the Poor and Marginalised; Ensuring Farmer Welfare; New Momentum For Nari Shakti; Empowering India's Amritpeedhi; Ease of Living for India's Middle Class; are just a few of the 14 major topics that the government has outlined in the book. Affordable, accessible healthcare for everyone; nation first- foreign policy and national security; ease of doing business; infra at speed and scale; india's techade; northeast – a growth engine; virasat aur vikas; and environment and sustainability. The government has also written extensively in the book on the issues of A Global Economic Powerhouse, Ease of Doing Business, and Infra at Speed and Scale in this context of economic growth.
The Indian economy continues to set new records, the government said in the chapter titled A Global Economic Powerhouse, while the rest of the world's economy battles to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak and the Russia-Ukraine war.
India is the fastest-growing major economy in the world, according to the IMF's most recent predictions for global economic growth.
The administration said that a healthy and expanding economy that has recovered from the ravages of the pandemic is shown by the significant increase in GST receipts, increase in capital investment outlay, and record growth in exports.
In the book, it was said that “this can be credited not only to the Modi government's holistic approach to managing the economic fallout of the pandemic, but also to the consistent efforts since 2014 to strengthen the economy.”
The chapter also said that the Modi administration's structural changes have strengthened India's economy and given it the resilience to endure the pandemic's extraordinary consequences.
According to the book's chapter, the Modi administration has launched many schemes under Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat in an effort to make India a manufacturing powerhouse.
The Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) system gave this industry further momentum. PLI aims to make local manufacturing competitive worldwide and to develop national manufacturing leaders. It claimed that the PLI programmes had produced thousands of new employment and put the Indian economy on a path of fast expansion.
It was also said in this chapter that the Modi administration has made MSMEs a key component of its economic strategy. “During the Covid epidemic, more than one crore MSMEs were safeguarded and prevented from potentially closing permanently thanks to the government's Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme.
Additionally, the expansion and growth of MSMEs have been made possible by reforms including the modification of the MSME definition and improvements to labour and environmental legislation, it said.
The book claims that PM Modi had repeatedly promised the nation's wealth creators substantial assistance in their attempts to innovate and make India independent. This is shown by his dedication to and support of the Indian Semiconductor Mission (ISM) and its goal of creating an environment for the production of semiconductors and displays in India.
According to the economic growth portion of the book, India has also turned into a favoured investment destination under Prime Minister Modi's energetic leadership, registering its highest-ever annual FDI inflow of USD 83.57 billion in the Financial Year 2021–22.
In order to increase Indian exports and reach 42 trillion in goods and service exports by 2030, the Modi administration has also unveiled a new foreign trade policy.
The improvement in quality of life for all Indians in all spheres of society, according to the government, is a result of the spectacular transformation of the Indian economy during the last nine years.
The government said in the chapter on the ease of doing business that “today, the world is looking at India as an attractive destination for investment and global companies want to establish businesses here.”
According to the book, the nation's startups are one of the best instances of how the business environment has improved. India has over 350 startups before to 2014.
It claimed that the number of businesses has increased 260 times in the last nine years thanks to initiatives like StartUp India. Furthermore, there are now around 100 unicorns living in the nation.
According to the book's chapter, red carpets have taken the role of rent-seeking and bureaucracy since 2014, and the government now actively supports risk-takers rather than acting as an impediment.
“A business-friendly atmosphere and a government that actively handles its citizens' problems and resolves issues have thrilled entrepreneurs and investors in India in recent years. This paradigm change has been made possible by historic choices like the elimination of retroactive taxes,
“The National Single Window System now allows obtaining all approvals through a single platform,” the book in the chapter noted, adding, “and Angel Tax, and lowering corporate tax.” Additionally, the Modi administration has eliminated hundreds of superfluous compliances and over 1,500 outdated legislation.
It claimed that the world recognised India's efforts to increase commercial accessibility. “This is shown by the ongoing rise in a number of worldwide rankings. For instance, according to the book, the nation's position in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index rose from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019.
India is presently ranked 38th out of 139 nations in the Logistic Performance Index (LPI) 2023 of the World Bank.
“This is a strong indicator of India's global positioning, with this development being powered by the Government's laser focus on reforms for improving logistics infrastructure through initiatives like PM Gati Shakti and new National Logistics Policy,” the statement said.
The success of the GeM site, whose government purchases have exceeded Rs 4 lakh crore, is cited in the book as an example of the push for more openness and a fair playing field for MSMEs and small enterprises.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has effectively oversaw a mentality revolution in addition to various reforms and important choices, it said. “Unlike previous administrations, the Modi government views business owners as both wealth creators and collaborators in advancing the nation.”
It stated that coordinated efforts to increase business accessibility have resulted in a historically large increase in the number of wealth producers.
“This has had a butterfly effect on the country as a whole,” it said. “It has increased the government's resources available for its welfare and development programmes, while also enabling job creation and higher incomes in the country.”
The government said that a nation's economic trajectory is significantly influenced by the calibre of its infrastructure in the book's chapter on Infra at Speed and Scale.
It said that a strong infrastructure is the essential foundation for our country to grow into a major economic force on the world stage. According to the report, the administration of Narendra Modi has put infrastructure at the top of its list of priorities for growth. Infrastructure projects in the past had exorbitant delays, it continued.
However, according to the book, during the last nine years, infrastructure development in the nation has been characterised by “thinking big and delivering right away.” Through the PRAGATI platform, the prime minister has routinely followed the development of projects, which has resulted in the successful completion of several postponed infrastructure projects as well as recently announced initiatives.
The book said that “the daily average highway construction reached an all-time high and has consistently remained far higher than pre-2014 levels,” in keeping with its objective of establishing last-mile connectivity. Similar to how access to roads has become practically ubiquitous in the hinterland due to a tremendous growth in rural road development. In the last nine years, line doubling and track electrification have significantly increased the capacity of Indian railroads.
A 'Make in India' success story is the Vande Bharat Express, one of India's first homegrown semi-high-speed trains, it was said.
According to the book, the Modi government's actions have made air travel more inexpensive and accessible.
It said, “further, 68 underserved/unserved destinations which include 58 Airports, 8 Heliports, and two Water aerodromes have been connected under the UDAN scheme.” It was stated that 74 airports had been developed and operationalized in under nine years.
Metro rail is already available in smaller cities, much like airports. It had said that 20 cities have been reached by metro rail projects during the previous nine years.
Accordingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi 'announced the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP) in line with this, which is a transformative approach for integrated and holistic planning across concerned Ministries/Departments to improve multimodal connectivity, logistics efficiency, and to address critical infrastructure gaps for seamless movement of people and goods, with a focus on minimising disruptions and ensuring timely completion of projects'.
Given that the government intends to spend approximately Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure development over the next several years, it is the largest infrastructure development plan in India since independence.
The report came to the conclusion that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plans for infrastructure improvement would help India's economy advance to the next stage. It also said that the project will “improve the quality of life for citizens, multiply job creation, and achieve last mile connectivity to bring about inclusive development.”
