Readying a detailed road map for third term, says PM Narendra Modi

He said he's preparing a detailed roadmap to make India third-largest economy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday vowed to take big decisions and asserted that his government is preparing a detailed roadmap for new schemes to remove poverty and make India the third-largest economy in the world.

“I guarantee that in our third term, the Indian economy will reach the third spot in the world. You must also be prepared. In our third term, more big decisions are going to be taken. To remove India’s poverty and to give a new direction to India’s growth, I have been preparing new schemes for the last one and a half years. I am preparing a detailed roadmap for this. I have already taken suggestions from 15 lakh people in different ways. This will be finalised in the next 20-30 days. The new India will work at a fast pace. And this is Modi’s guarantee,” he said at the Times Global Business Summit.

 

Modi said in the last 10 years India has been transformed.

“There is consensus that this is India’s time. And the faith of the world has been continuously rising. There was never such positive sentiment about India and its capability. In the development journey of a country, a time comes when everything is favourable. When the country makes itself strong for many centuries to come. I see that time for India,”  he added.

The prime minister said a virtuous cycle has started for India.

“This is the time when our growth is continuously increasing while our fiscal deficit is narrowing. When our exports are rising and current account deficit falling, when our productive investment is at an all-time high and inflation is under control. This is the time when opportunity and income are rising and poverty is decreasing; when consumption and corporate productivity both rise and there is a record decline in bank NPAs. This is also when our critics are at an all-time low,” he added.

Modi said the government’s Interim Budget has been praised, adding that it is not a populist Budget. “If you discuss our overall policymaking, you can observe some first principles such as stability, consistency and continuity. This Budget is also an extension of these,” he said.

The prime minister said his government has not only invested in the present but also in the future. “If you take a closer look, you will notice four prime factors in our Budgets. First, record spending on capital expenditure. Second, unprecedented investment in welfare schemes. Third, curb wasteful expenditure. Fourth, financial discipline. We struck a balance on these four priorities and we achieved the set targets,” he added.