In The Media ⁽⁴⁰⁰⁾

Read full article The Modi government’s social sector strategy has aimed to make existing programmes more efficient, and give priority to empowerment over entitlement. In broad terms, two features distinguish social sector strategy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. First, it endeavours to make the existing programs more efficient by cutting leakages. And second, it gives priority to empowerment over entitlement. Early in its tenure, the government achieved a major success in financial inclusion with empowerment through Prime >Minister’s Jana Dhana Yojana. This scheme proposed to give a bank account to every family. The program entered the Guinness Book of Records for opening 1.8 crore accounts in one week from 23 to 29 August 2014. By May 2016, the scheme had opened 21.74 crore accounts with Rs. 37,445 crore in deposits. Alongside, the Prime Minister not only took the pragmatic decision of retaining and rapidly expanding the Aadhaar biometric identification program but also accelerated its deployment for cutting wasteful expenditure in the delivery of social programs. Recently, legislation has been passed that empowers the government to require the beneficiary of services financed…

Substantial progress has been made towards restoring economic momentum. Much remains to be done.Read full article Abstract: PM modi, prime minister narendra modi, 2 years of Modi govt, modi tenure, Narendra Modi, modi anniversary, bjp anniversary, bjp term, bjp two year anniversary, e-auctions in mandis, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, PMKSY, Crop Insurance Programme, NITI Aayog, FDI in insurance, India news Prime Minister Narendra Modi With nearly 80 per cent of the poor living in rural areas, the government has rightly given the highest priority to reviving agriculture. A major initiative to create a genuine national agricultural market through e-auctions in mandis across the breadth and length of the nation has been launched. It promises to bring remunerative prices to farmers. The government has permitted 100 per cent FDI in the food chain as long as the produce originates domestically. To boost productivity in agriculture, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) is being implemented in mission mode with emphasis on low-hanging fruit, such as command area works of projects otherwise complete. The government has given high priority to drip…

Be it roads, railways, ports, civil aviation, energy or electricity, the Narendra Modi govt has invigorated all these sectors since it took over Read full article Abstract: I recently wrote that the policy changes the Narendra Modi government has been putting in place promise to return the economy to miracle growth in the near future. Today, I document the turnaround in one important area - infrastructure. More will follow soon. Let us begin with roads. The government has achieved a breakthrough, unblocking previously stuck road projects, while also accelerating the initiation of new projects. Of the total number of stuck projects worth Rs 3.8 lakh crore, this government has already unblocked Rs 3.5 lakh crore worth of projects.

Read full article Abstract: With the second anniversary of the government round the corner, assessments of its performance will begin soon. Such assessments need to take into account the baseline at which this government began. Any progress must be judged against this baseline. In May 2004, when the first National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government lost the election, it handed to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) an economy that had grown 8.1% during the preceding full year. The UPA ruled till May 2014, returning to NDA an economy that had grown just 5% during its last full year (the new GDP series subsequently revised this growth rate to 6.9%). Under UPA-I, which ruled from 2004 to 2009, GDP growth averaged 8.4%. While this was an impressive performance, there is no satisfactory answer to the question what UPA-I did to make it happen. You can carefully scan Budget speeches and other relevant documents of UPA-I but, beyond continuation of trade liberalisation and trimming of the small-scale industries reservation list, you would find references to few reforms to which this performance can be…