PM Modi at NITI Aayog meet: Centre-state ties, Aatmanirbhar Bharat in focus

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday addressed the sixth meeting of the governing council of NITI Aayog through a video conference. The Prime Minister emphasised on the ease of living for Indians and ease of doing business to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) among other issues.

Here are the highlights of his address:

Competitive, cooperative federalism

The Prime Minister during his address said federalism is the foundation for India's development. The Centre and the states need to work together to make federalism more meaning. We should also try to bring competitive and cooperative federalism not only among states but districts as well, he added.

Centre, states budgets

The Centre began the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to encourage manufacturing. States should take advantage of the reduced corporate tax rate. The capital expenditure for the infrastructure sector will take the nation forward as it will create greater employment opportunities. Centre and states need to synchronise their budgets to better achieve the targets, PM Modi said.

Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision

Aatmanirbhar Bharat is a mission not only for self-reliance but also to produce for the world. India is a young nation and to achieve its aspiration we need to encourage innovation, develop greater technology, provide greater education. Startups, MSMEs need to be made stronger, PM Modi said while recognizing the individual talents of different states and districts. A healthy competition of exports of different products between the states needs to be developed. This competition should be inculcated at districts and block levels too, PM Modi said.

United front against Covid-19 pandemic

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country, the states and the centre worked together. This Governing council meeting becomes more significant as India heads towards completing its 75 years of independence, PM Modi said.

Governing council

The agendas have been set to get advice from all the states, give the states time to prepare and come up with resolutions. The governing council's agenda points are very specific this time, said PM Modi.

Private sector

The nation needs to develop, it does not want to waste time. The private sector is enthusiastically coming forward to aid the development of the nation. We need to give the private sector space in the Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision, said PM Modi.

Bharat Net scheme

For internet connectivity, Bharat Net scheme is doing significant work to provide internet access to all. In all such schemes when centre and states will work together the country will develop more, said the Prime Minister.

Rural housing

Since 2014, 2.40 lakh crore houses have been built across the nation in all states and cities. More development work is being done to build more modern houses, ensure clean drinking water that does not cause malnutrition in form of Jal Jeevan mission. More than 3.5 crore rural houses have been connected to a water pipeline under the mission, he said.

Ease of doing business

Our aim should be ease of doing business for global positioning to grab opportunities while for Indian citizens our aim should be ease of living, for which we need some changes to the laws and policies, said PM Modi.

Poor

To empower the poor of the country we opened bank accounts, increased vaccinations, healthcare facilities, provided electricity, free gas, all these have brought significant changes in the lives of the poor, PM Modi said. The work of providing houses to the poor is also going at a good speed, some states need to increase their pace, he added.

Liberalisation of geospatial mapping

Youth should be given space to reflect their talent. OSP regulations were reformed a few time back, which provided the youngsters to work remotely that mostly benefited the tech sector. We need to stop every such restriction. We liberalized geospatial data too. It is the talent of our people but products are not ours, PM Modi said citing people working for and developing global tech giants like Google.

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Reduced compliance

PM Modi said we export raw fish products, we can also export processed fish products. Our coastal states need to take a united initiative to take over the global market for which reforms are very important. Reforms have been to reduce government intervention and regulation for decreased compliance to aid ease of living.

Agro-climatic regional planning

Panchayat Raj should be made more responsible for the district development and come together with the states and the Centre for greater results. Even though we are an agrarian economy, still various other edibles are imported by the country. Our farmers can grow all this at home and export them too. For this, it is important that all states do agro-climatic regional planning to help farmers. A holistic approach was taken in farming, poultry and husbandry that reaped greater results, PM Modi said.