Next 5 years will be period of unprecedented growth & prosperity: PM Modi at Rising Bharat Summit 2024

.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday promised “unprecedented transformation, growth and prosperity” for Indians over the next five years, targetting the middle class and youth in a pre-election pitch.

Speaking at News18’s “Rising Bharat Summit” in New Delhi, PM Modi said that the world believes that the 21st century belongs to India and is confident about a “rising Bharat”.

“Everyone is watching the kind of developments undertaken by the government in the last 10 years. The whole world is seeing what the country has achieved in the last 10 years,” PM Modi said during his keynote speech.

He said that the government’s efforts have helped the Indian economy become the world’s fifth largest in the past 10 years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power.

PM Modi also appealed to the people to move forward with this “niyat” (intent) of putting the “Nation First”, which he said will strengthen the “foundation of rising Bharat”.

“The day you all align your work with the nation … that day is when the seed of ‘nation first” has sprouted in you,” he added.

Here are the highlights from PM Modi’s speech:

On Lok Sabha elections 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there is a mood of debate ahead of elections, and that is the beauty of democracy. He said the BJP-led Central government is already making a roadmap for the next 25 years and the blueprint for the first 100 days of his “third term”.

Appeal to the middle class

In his address, the Prime Minister said that the lives of the middle class, who faced “political neglect” before 2014, have transformed in the past ten years.

He acknowledged that there were problems galore for the section of the society, which was saddled with the burden of taxation, children’s education and loans.

“It was this NDA government that brought scheme for housing for the middle class ... allocated Rs 25,000 crore for completion of housing projects which were stuck. The middle class families would spend crores for their children’s foreign education earlier. Now, foreign institutions are setting up campuses in India,” he said.

Befitting response to terror

Prime Minister Modi came down heavily on the perpetrators of terrorism and said the new India will not tolerate terror.

“This new Bharat does not endure terrorism; rather, it inflicts serious damage upon perpetrators. The people who used to terrorise us … are nowhere now,” he said.

On BJP’s success story:

Modi said that in the last 10 years, as many as 25 crore people have come out of poverty, and India has become the fifth largest economy in the world.

He pointed out that the country’s forex reserve is more than $700 billion.

The Prime Minister said the BJP-led government transformed government offices into service centres.

“Today tenders of the governments are transparent. Had 5G come at the time of 2G we don’t know what would have happened,” he said.

He also highlighted that in the last decade, the government has opened two new colleges every day and one university every week. “While there were 50,000 MBBS seats available before 2014, that number has now reached 100,000,” he said.

Crackdown on corruption

The Prime Minister said that due to his government’s crackdown on corruption, it has now become difficult for anyone to hide black money.

He said that corruption used to be a major issue in the country before 2014, but the situation changed once his government came to power and took strict action against corruption.

“Today, powerful and corrupt leaders are asking why the agencies are targeting them … this is the change that has come in the last 10 years,” he said.

The Prime Minister added that his government has gotten rid of as many as 4 crore fake ration cards. He added that with Direct Benefit Transfer, it has removed 10 crore fake beneficiaries.

“The poor were being deprived of the schemes that were intended for them,” he said.

“The poor bless me … this is why they (opposition) even abuse the poor…and that is why, the nation has decided that ‘Phir ek baar, Modi Sarkaar’.”