 "What PM Narendra Modi said about creation of jobs in Independence Day speech")
New schemes to link all public and private investments to additional creation of jobs and the formation of a new department for farmers' welfare are two key economic policy initiatives that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hinted at in his Independence Day address from Red Fort here on Saturday.
Addressing the nation on the occasion of the 69th Independence Day, his second speech as prime minister, Modi said there would now be an attempt at linking job creation with new investments. Senior government sources said schemes were under preparation to formalise the announcements.
The new schemes would be comparable to the earlier policy of allowing imports on concessional terms provided importers committed to fulfilling specific export obligations within a time frame. The proposed schemes would now impose the obligation of creating fresh jobs for every clearance given to investments whether in the public or private sector. The modalities of the schemes were now being worked out, the sources said.
The proposed department for farmers' welfare woud be formed under the agriculture ministry. As the prime minister said in his speech, the focus of the government policy should be not just the Indian agriculture, but also the farmer. The new department was expected to address specific farmers' concerns and needs, the sources explained.
Another key economic policy announcement on Saturday pertained to the launch of a new scheme to promote start-ups, the details of which were not available. The prime minister's announcement that the government accepted the principle of one rank one pension represented no major forward movement, but failed to dispel the uncertainty over the extent of the damage it would cause to government finances.
A large part of the PM's speech focused on the government drive to tackle corruption, a likely response to recent charges of corruption levelled against it by the Opposition parties. Modi ruled out any dilution in the black money law passed by Parliament during the Budget session this year and said already an estimated Rs 6,500 crore had been brought back by Indians from their foreign accounts using the window of opportunity available to them till September 30 under the law.
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Modi also referred to the functioning of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team to crack down on black money and noted that the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), which had handled only 800 cases in one year prior to the formation of his government, had now taken up 1,800 such cases in the last one year.
Listing out his government's other initiatives to make India free from corruption, Modi said the government had managed to eliminate middlemen and brokers by opting for auctions for coal mining and FM radio licences, for instance, and earning substantial revenues for the government which would then be used for the poor. The use of the direct benefits transfer scheme and Aadhaar, the biometrics based identity verification system, had also helped the government to plug leakages and eliminate corruption, he said.
Modi promised the nation to build more toilets and make the campaign for a clean India a success. He devoted some attention to the development needs of Eastern India and mentioned in particular West Bengal and Bihar, where Assembly elections were due soon.
The Prime Minister's speech took many digs at past governments for paying only lip service to financial inclusion and said his government had opened over 170 million new bank accounts and extended insurance facilities to the poor at a nominal premium of only Rs 12 a year. This was in addition to other health schemes for the poor, he said.