‘Target to set up space station by 2025’
MUMBAI, Mar 6 :
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said their Government contained the inflation below 5 per cent while it had reached double-digit growth during the Congress-led UPA regime.
Before 2014, the Indian economy was fragile, inflation was high and fiscal deficit was beyond control, Shah said at the India Global Forum’s annual investment summit NXT10 in Mumbai.
Today, India has emerged as a policy-driven state, he said, adding the country will be a USD 4 trillion economy by this year-end.
“Our target is to set up a space station by 2025,” he said.
Violence in the country has come down by 72 per cent in three hotspots – the North East region, Naxal-dominated areas and Jammu and Kashmir. More than 10,000 extremists have surrendered by laying down their arms and have come into the mainstream,” he said.
Union Home Minister also said the country is becoming safer in terms of internal security, and especially for women.
“We have introduced new criminal codes. The reforms in the penal codes that were in practice from pre-independence period have been replaced. A case, even if it reaches the Supreme Court, would be cleared within three years,” he said.
The Home Minister also said he was confident that India will be rid of the Left Wing Extremism in the next two years.
“We are approaching elections with our Government’s performance of last 10 years and roadmap of next 25 years,” the Union Minister said ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a visionary PM, Shah said that by 2047, when the country celebrates its centenary of independence, Bharat will be completely developed, atmanirbhar (self-reliant) and among the top three economies in the world.
“Bharat is a self-confident and self-reliant country, which has transformed itself from a dormant to a dynamic government, from regressive to progressive growth, and from a fragile economy to a top economy,” Shah said.
The progress made in the last 10 years should be compared with the previous UPA Government’s decade, he said.
“Unless you do not know how deep the pothole was, you cannot understand the progress we achieved,” the senior BJP said.
“Inflation reached double-digit growth during the Congress-led UPA regime; our Government has contained it below 5 per cent. The country’s confidence was shaken due to various scams of Rs 12 lakh crore during the UPA’s tenure, crony capitalism was at its peak,” he said
“The fiscal deficit was beyond control, and we were at the bottom of the ease-of-doing-business rankings. The country’s ratings declined while the banks struggled with their balance sheets. The country faced political instability for 30 years,” he said.
After the Congress, BJP became the only party which came to power with an absolute majority, Shah said.
He said the average inflation rate from 2004 to 2014 was 8.2 per cent and in double digits between 2010-11 and 2013-14.
“The ten years of UPA were almost missing from the country’s growth story. You cannot even find those years. Nothing happened in those 10 years in the name of growth. Modiji took reins of the country in such conditions (in 2014),” he said.
The country’s GDP growth in 2013-14 was 6.9 per cent, and today it stands at 8.4 per cent, Shah said.
“The per capita GDP was USD 3,889 in the UPA period, which jumped to USD 6,000 during the Modi Government. The value of electronics exports was USD 7.6 billion during the UPA period, which increased to USD 23 billion under the Modi Government. Forex reserves also jumped from USD 305 billion to USD 600 billion. There were 350 start-ups in the country before 2014, which now stand at 1,17,000,” he said.
While the number of direct taxpayers in 2012 was 4.7 crore, it almost doubled it to 8.11 crore in just 10 years of the BJP government, he said.
“The country took 67 years to become a one-trillion dollar economy and doubled in another eight years. PM Modi, in just five years, made the country a three-trillion dollar economy. I estimate it will become a four-trillion dollar economy by the end of this year. By 2027, we will be a seven-trillion dollar economy,” Shah said.
On the targets set by the BJP Government, the Minister said they want to host the 2036 Olympic Games and send a person to the moon by 2040.
“By 2047, we will become a fully developed country and ‘vishwaguru’. It is time for the Indian businesses to expand their scale and size,” he said.
The last budget of the UPA Government led by Manmohan Singh had the provision of Rs 2 lakh crore capital expenditure as against Rs 11 lakh crore capex proposed in the latest budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said. (PTI)
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