India is a bright spot on global economy: Key takeaways from PM Modi's speech at HT Leadership Summit today

As he took to the stage at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country has heralded a new area in which the world sees it as a bright spot in the global economy, owing to the fact that it has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies across the globe.

He called on states to collectively work hand in hand with the Centre to keep this pace going for achieving sustained success. “Going by statistics, we can say that India is moving at a steady pace towards a shining future. States & Centre have to move together, shoulder to shoulder for a sustained level of success and to imporve the ease of doing business,” PM Modi said, while delivering the inaugural address on the theme “Towards a Brighter India”.

Further highlighting the crucial role of states in India’s progress, he said: “Till now Delhi decided where states will spend money. Now chief ministers decide where the money will be spent. Each state has a different USP and we need to work in such a way so the world gets to know India beyond the metros.”

India has been either constant or falling on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ index. “Progressing in those rankings was unthinkable in past,” he said, noting that to improve it, those states which were not expected to do well in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings like Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have actually proven themselves. “Development of India's eastern part cannot be ignored. They are areas with great potential. We are linking east India with a gas grid, for the first time,” he said.

Talking on subsidies, he reiterated what he had said during his high profile trip to the UK on NDA’s cash transfer scheme in LPG distribution. “If I cut down subsidy, I will be hailed as reformist, but if we do targeted delivery of subsidies, it is not seen as reform. We stopped the leakage of Subsidy by introducing cash transfer scheme in LPG distribution. Today, India has changed; an unprecedented 40 lakh people have given up gas subsidy,” the PM said, while he was stressing on the need of saving resources rather than pumping up investment, and citing smart ways to do it.

Over logjam in Parliament, Modi said: “Parliament is working now. This is good news. The credit does not go to me but to all the parties.”

Other key announcements Prime Minister Narendra Modi made at the Summit were:
1. Ports will be connected with the railways as it is being seen as essential for growth and infrastructure by the Modi government.
2. Work has begun on 60-65 long pending core industry projects, including in coal and power
3. Modi government is trying to plug leaks in subsidy worth Rs 80,000 crore on urea so that only farmers benefit
4. Work is on to build railway engines, factories in Bihar
5. After Railway bonds, Modi government is considering raising rupee-dominated bonds for NTPC in London or Singapore stock exchange
6. There are 18,000 villages which don't have even an electricity pole. Power generation capacity in India is growing annually at 8.5%. Switch over to LED lights completed in 20 cities, underway in 83 more, will save 21,500 MW of electricity.

Just a day ahead of the Summit, the Prime Minister was surrounded by controversy over a wrong image which was tweeted by Press Information Bureau that showed him taking an aerial survey of Chennai rains and the damage it had led to. Twitter was abuzz over the faux paux for several hours demanding answers from the agency over the need to post a photoshopped image of Modi.

Schedule of the 2-day HT Summit:

On Day 1, besides PM Modi, minister of finance Arun Jaitley, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, minister for human resource development Smriti Irani, members of Parliament Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sitaram Yechury, Jay Panda and Supriya Sule will represent the political side of the spectrum.

Soli Özel, Cole Bunzel, Joas Wagemakers, Robert Blackwill, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Diane Farrell are the other speakers. Bollywood actors Kangana Ranaut and Kareena Kapoor and filmmaker Imtiaz Ali will also take part in the discussions.