Looking to put the Covid horrors behind and place the economy on the fast-track, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised a slew of initiatives in his Independence Day speech on Sunday, including the Rs 100-trillion Pradhan Mantri Gatishakti Bharat Master Plan for integrated infrastructure growth. He also set a target of making India energy independent by 2047 by replace petroleum with other forms of energy and announced a National Hydrogen Mission, noting the country spends Rs 12 trillion on energy imports every year.
In his 90-minute speech, the prime minister hailed start-up unicorns for wealth creation and said his government would develop an e-commerce platform for products manufactured by women SHGs in villages.
The Gatishakti Bharat Master Plan has a striking resemblance to the 2019-20 Budget proposal which mentioned the same figure for the same purpose: Infrastructure creation; his own Independence Day speeches in 2019 and also last year had mentioned the National Infrastructure Pipeline Project.
The plan is aimed at easier interconnectivity between road, rail, air and waterways to reduce travel time and improve industrial productivity.
As before, the prime minister emphasis was on “Indian-made”: Whether it was fighter aircraft or mobile phones. He said India used to import mobile phones in large numbers but is now exporting them. He asked exporters to make goods that were not merely competitive but also high quality because “your goods are brand ambassadors for the country”.
“In our eyes, there must be a dream: A dream to capture the world market,” he said.
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Modi said the next 25 years are “Amrit Kaal” for Indian citizens. “The purpose of Amrit Kaal is to better the lives of citizens, lessen the development divide between villages and city, reduce government interference in people’s lives, and have latest technology so that we are not behind any country in the world,” the prime minsiter said.
Glossing over the shortages in public health facilities, especially during the second wave of Covid-19, Modi said the world had praised India for its Covid management and while its large population presented huge challenges, the country was forging ahead in vaccinating people. “But can you imagine what might have happened if India did not have its own vaccine?” he asked. He promised the expansion of public health facilities to panchayat levels.
The PM posed the ongoing protest against the three farm laws as a small-versus-big farmer problem. He said the Swaminathan committee formula for minimum support price had already been implemented. But it was farmers with small land-holdings who faced the biggest challenge. He referred to the ongoing digitisation of land records and said that this would help establish ownership and bring down litigation.
He said through ration shops or the mid-day meal scheme, fortified rice would be made available under every government programme by 2024.
The prime minister also said Sainik Schools, which used to admit only boys, would be now open to girls after a successful pilot project in Mizoram over two years ago.
Delivering his Independence Day address from the ramparts of Red Fort, Modi said there would be 75 Vande Bharat trains by 2023, besides India would have better air connectivity in the coming years with new airports. Work to connect capitals in the northeastern region with rail services would be completed soon, he said.
India’s production-linked incentive plan would make manufacturing globally competitive, he said. This came days after one of his ministers criticised Indian industry for not doing enough to aid the national manufacturing effort. The PM also asked state governments to revisit unnecessary regulations and scrap those that slowed down the system.
Given that the COP26 meeting on climate change is barely weeks away, the PM dwelt extensively on issues of climate change, mentioning the issue as one of “environment security”. He noted the Indian railway system would meet the net-zero target by 2030, the country had already surpassed the developed world in meeting per capita emission levels, and the emphasis on renewable forms of power would further reduce emission. “Green energy will lead to green jobs,” he said.
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Under the National Hydrogen Mission, the aim is to make the country a global hub for the production and export of green hydrogen – hydrogen as fuel obtained from the electrolysis of water, without any emission.
The PM referred only in passing to the world order that is emerging post Covid but said two challenges were evident: The challenge of terrorism and concerns about expansionism. “The world is looking at India with new eyes. And India is also replying to the challenges with resolve. Whether it is surgical strikes or expansionism, India is responding with courage and vigour,” he said. He said elections would be held in Jammu and Kashmir “soon”.
He avoided taking any position on Afghanistan where the Taliban — a force that India does not recognise and members of which are on the list of sanctioned organisations by both UN and US — is on the brink of establishing a government.
There were some firsts in the PM’s speech. His speeches are known for pure Hindi. This time, it was peppered with English words and phrases. For the first time, he read out a poem, presumably penned by him, as part of his speech, in the tradition of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Possibly for the first time, in a somewhat reflective tone, Modi referred to his tenure as prime minister and how future PMs would judge him. This reference to his place in history seemed to suggest a succession plan might be in the making.
