Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday assured global business leaders that situations on economic front will change rapidly now.
“Earlier we focussed on saving each and every life, now every Indian is fully involved for development of the nation,” Modi said while addressing the annual summit of the World Economic Forum held virtually. “India is marching ahead with a commitment for self-reliant,” he said.
Modi’s remarks assumes significance as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present the Union Budget for FY 2021-22 on February 1.
The Budget is expected to lay down the path of rapid development during coming years. Many global agencies – with IMF as latest addition – have projected double digit growth during FY 2021-22.
Keeping this in mind, the Budget is expected to focus more on public investment and incentivise private investment.
Modi said that aspiration for self-reliance will strengthen globalism with new vigour. He hoped that such a campaign will get big support from Industry 4.0. According to experts, industry 4.0 has four elements – connectivity, automation, artificial intelligence or machine learning, and real time data.
Digital growth
Modi said that India boasts of data for internet, mobile connectivity in remote areas and good number of smartphones. India has big pool of experts related with automation and design. Most of global firms have engineering centre in India. “Work on digital infrastructure during last six years in India is a matter of study for World Economic Forum. This infrastructure has enabled digital solutions as part of day-to-day life of an Indian,” he said. India has issued 1.3 billion universal identity - Aadhaar to its citizens. Bank accounts are linked with this identity and mobile phone.
“December alone saw over ₹4 trillion worth of transactions through UPI, the payment system,” he said, while attributing this to mobile connectivity and Aadhaar seeding.
Modi assured that every success of India will assist success of the world. “Our self-reliance campaign is committed towards global goods,” he said, while adding that India has capacity, capability and reliability to strengthen global supply chain. “India has very big consumer base and its expansion will help the world,” the PM said.