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Economy, business and finance
‘Modinomics propelled India’s economic success’: Rajnath Singh hails PM Modi on birthday eve
Speaking a day before PM Modi turned 76, Singh said India's growth story under Modi was driven by an ecosystem that enabled the country's 'brain power and manpower' to realise their full potential.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic vision, which he described as ‘Modinomics’, has laid the foundation for India's rapid economic growth. Singh, speaking a day before PM Modi's 76th birthday, asserted that the country is moving steadily on the path of development and good governance.
‘Modinomics’ is a term used to describe the economic policies, reforms, and governance ideas of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by his admirers.
Singh said India's growth story under Modi was driven by an ecosystem that enabled the country's "brain power and manpower" to realise their full potential.
"Before 2014 also, India had both brainpower and manpower, but they were not working to their full potential. Modiji created an ecosystem where both brainpower and manpower can work to their full potential," he said at a press conference in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Born as Narendra Damodardas Modi on September 17, 1950 in the nondescript Mehsana town of Gujarat, he served as the state's CM for three consecutive terms (2001-14) and the Prime Minister for the third time since 2014.
Like every year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will launch the 'Sewa Pakhwara' – the fortnight of events across the country – marking PM Modi's birthday.
In the past, Narendra Modi has spent his birthday interacting with citizens, launching welfare schemes, or participating in public service initiatives, instead of hosting personal celebrations.
Minister Singh said India is "well-regulated and well-governed" today and claimed that public money meant for the welfare of the poor was no longer being diverted by middlemen.
He said that India's economic success story has been propelled by "Modinomics".
Singh said that Modinomics is based on INDIA, "where I stands for inclusive, N for new age, D for digital, again I for innovative and A for atmanirbharta (self-reliance)."
He also highlighted the country's growing Defence exports, saying India is now exporting defence equipment to more than 100 countries.
Singh praised West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, saying his work is being appreciated and discussed in other parts of the country. He expressed confidence that under Adhikari's leadership, West Bengal would make a "significant contribution" to the goal of building a developed India.
Singh was in Kolkata to speak about the BJP's month-long "Seva Se Sankalp" campaign, which is being organised from September 17 to October 17 to mark Modi's birthday and his completion of 25 years as head of government.
He said the campaign was also significant in the context of Modi's "spirit of service", noting that while his designation, responsibilities and role had changed over the years, his commitment to "service before self" remained unchanged.
"For the first time in the history of independent India, all six stanzas of Vande Mataram were sung from the Red Fort on Independence Day this year. This is also a mark of respect for Bengal," Singh said.
Singh said Modi's 25-year journey in public office, which began with his becoming Gujarat CM and continued with his tenure as prime minister, had "influenced the nation's politics", given a new direction to India's development and enhanced its global standing.
He said Modi's birthday on September 17 this year is of special significance as just 20 days later on October 7, he will be completing 25 years as head of government - as the CM of Gujarat from 2011 and the PM from 2014.
Lauding Modi for his vision, Singh said the introduction of the UPI was met with scepticism. "In August, which marked completion of 10 years of the introduction of UPI, 23.66 billion UPI transactions, valued at ₹29.88 lakh crore, took place," he said, adding it is a record.
French President Emmanuel Macron hailed UPI success as a civilisational story and not just a technological achievement, he said, adding that it has increased street vendors' income.
Singh said that the number of startups in the country, which stood at a paltry 500 in 2014 when Modi took over as the PM following two successive Congress-led UPA governments, has shot up to over two lakh.
"There has been a four-fold increase in defence production, reaching nearly ₹1.80 lakh crore currently, compared to around ₹45,000 crore earlier," the defence minister said.
Singh said India is currently exporting defence equipment to more than 100 countries. He said India is now manufacturing semiconductors as well as providing 20 per cent of the world's generic medicine requirements, 60 per cent of vaccine requirements and 99 per cent of mobile phone demand in India are made in the country itself.
He said that Modi has made possible "minimum government and maximum governance", making it citizen-centric.
Pointing to the signing of the New Delhi declaration with full consensus among participating countries at the recent BRICS summit, he said, "This happened despite there being countries opposed to each other."
He said this was also witnessed in the 2023 G-20 when consensus was achieved in the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration despite differences among participating nations.
"India is going through an unprecedented era of change in almost every sector," the union minister said.
He said that Modi's initiative to introduce 'Jan Dhan Yojana' drew criticism from some quarters who claimed that this would cause unnecessary pressure on the banks and also questioned the sagacity of opening zero-balance bank accounts.
Stating that the opposition failed to visualise the benefits of such accounts, Singh said, "Jan Dhan accounts led to increase in savings by the poor and have attached them to the formal banking system."
He said that while only ₹15,500 crore were in Jan Dhan accounts in 2015, this has increased to over ₹3 lakh crore now.
Over 56 per cent of 59 crore such accounts belong to women, Singh added.
Earlier, 40 to 60 per cent leakage occurred in various welfare schemes, he said, adding, “We stopped leakage of ₹4.31 lakh crore through direct benefit transfer, ensuring that people's money reached targeted beneficiaries by bypassing middlemen.”
Singh said that the gross non-performing assets ratio of public sector banks has come down to 1.93 per cent, while the net NPA ratio is only 0.39 per cent.
(With agency inputs)
