Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said major global firms are watching India as a serious investment destination, which is reflected by a strong inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) last fiscal year , and thru ‘Atmnirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ (self-reliant India initiative) the country is shifting its focus from ‘Make in India’ to ‘Make for world’.
He said Independent India should be “vocal for local” and asked citizens to glorify Indian products to market ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. He gave the instance of N-95 masks, personal protective equipments (PPEs) and ventilators - how Indian entrepreneurs came up at the time of worldwide Covid-19 urgency and not only met the domestic demand but also exported them to the planet .
He said that the country is striving to realize overall economic process and become self-reliant, but humanity remains its ethos. “India has always believed that the whole world is one family. While we specialise in economic process and development, humanity must retain a central role during this process and our journey,” he said.
Unveiling his vision of a self-reliant India, the Prime Minister said that the govt has unveiled over Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) to spice up the economy and make jobs. “In order to rapidly modernise India, there's a requirement to offer a replacement direction to overall infrastructure development,” he said, adding that over 7,000 projects under NIP are already identified.
“This are going to be , in a way, a replacement revolution within the field of infrastructure. this is often the time to finish silos in infrastructure. there's an idea to attach the whole country with multi-model connectivity infrastructure,” he said.
NIP will play an important role in overcoming the adverse impact of Covid-19 on the economy and catapult the economy during a higher growth trajectory, he said.
Covid-19 pandemic and a 68-day nationwide lockdown to see the spread of the virus since Annunciation adversely impacted the country’s economic process , which was already subdued. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) slowed to 4.2% in fiscal 2019-20, rock bottom in 11 years. It followed precipitous growth contractions reported by the US and European countries after the pandemic closed shops, factories and restaurants, signalling a period of recession. The US economy posted a second-quarter contraction of 9.5%, the worst figure on record.
India is predicted to report its April-June GDP numbers by the top of this month. Economists expect its economy to contract by a minimum of 5% this year (2020-21) especially because the country had seen a tough lockdown for 2 full months of the quarter (April and May).
The government on New Year's Eve last year unveiled the NIP with an aim to form India a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. the main target of the infrastructure pipeline is to accelerate growth and make employment in both urban and rural areas. The NIP is already under execution as 40% of the projects worth Rs 44 lakh crore are at various stages of implementation, officialdom said requesting anonymity.
Giving emphasis to import of staple and export of value-added products to form India a producing hub, PM Modi said, “How long can the staple be sent out of our country and finished products imported?. “Atmnirbhar Bharat doesn’t mean only reducing imports, it means to enhancing our capacity, our creativity, our skills,” he added. (Source)
