Amid global uncertainty, experts certain about India’s fast growth: PM Modi

GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that even amidst an atmosphere of global uncertainty all experts across the world are certain about India’s fast growth.

“Even amidst an atmosphere of global uncertainty at present, all experts across the world are certain about one thing. And that is the certainty about India’s fast growth,” Modi said at the Assam government’s infrastructure and investment summit Advantage Assam 2.0, in Guwahati.

“There’s a concrete reason for this faith. Keeping in mind the long-term vision of the next 25 years of the 21st century, today’s India is taking one step after another and working on a massive scale (to achieve them),” Modi said.

He said that the faith on India’s growth is because of its large youth population who are getting skilled at a very fast pace and leading innovations. He added that the world has faith in the country’s neo-middle class, which has come out of poverty and is moving ahead with new aspirations.

“The world has faith in the 1.4 billion of India who are supporting political stability and policy continuity. There’s faith on governance in India which is on a trajectory of reforms,” he said.

Modi said Assam’s contribution in India’s growth has been growing continuously over the past years. In 2018 when the first Advantage Assam summit was held, the size of the state’s economy was ₹3.25 lakh crore and now it has grown to ₹6 lakh crores.

“It shows that under BJP rule, Assam’s economy has doubled in just 6 years. The state has now become a place of unlimited possibilities,” he said.

Also Read | Advantage Assam 2.0 Summit: Cabinet clears MoUs worth over ₹1.22 lakh crores

Citing infrastructure development in the state, he mentioned how there were just three bridges across the Brahmaputra River in 2014, but in the past 10 years four more have been added. He gave examples of an increase in connectivity in the region through railways and air in the past 10 years.

“The change is not limited to infrastructure. There’s been unprecedented improvement in the state’s law and order scenario in the past decade through signing of several peace accords and resolutions of inter-state border conflicts,” he said.

Modi termed Assam a gateway connecting the rest of India to the South-East Asian region and urged industrial houses to benefit from the Centre’s UNNATI (Uttar Poorva Transformative Industrialisation) scheme which aims at industrial growth in different sectors in all eight states of northeast through tailored support and incentives.

Also Read | PM Modi to unveil ₹2,927-cr Project Lion in Gir on March 3: Gujarat officials

“Assam’s natural resources and strategic location make the state a preferred destination for investment. In coming days, the state will become a manufacturing hub, and the Centre is helping the Assam government in achieving that,” he added.

Several industrialists, including N Chandrasekaran of Tata Group, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance, Gautam Adani of Adani Group, Prashant Ruia of Essar Group, Anil Agarwal of Vedanta and Sajjan Jindal of JSW Group, delivered speeches in the inaugural session of the summit and assured investments across multiple sectors in the coming years.

“Until now Assam was known as the tea-paradise, but in the coming decades the state will become a tech paradise,” Ambani said while committing investments over ₹50,000 crore in the next five years.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar, Union minister of shipping and ports Sarbananda Sonowal, Union minister of communications and development of northeastern region Jyotiraditya Scindia, Assam governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya and chief ministers of Assam and Tripura, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Manik Saha were part of the inaugural event of the two-day summit.