The biggest change is here and its due to our honourable PM Narendra Modi. Here are some things he has done for us:
Leveraging the Power of JAM: Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile
JAM vision, will serve as the bedrock of many initiatives to come. For me, JAM is about Just Achieving Maximum.
Maximum value for every rupee spent.
Maximum empowerment for our poor.
Maximum technology penetration among the masses.
-Narendra Modi
67 years after Independence, India still had a large part of the population who had no access to banking services. This meant, they had neither any avenues for Savings, nor any opportunity to get institutional credit. PM Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana on 28th August to address this fundamental issue. Within a matter of months, this scheme has radically transformed lives and futures of millions of Indians. In just over a year, 19.72 crore bank accounts were opened. 16.8 crore Rupay cards have been issued so far. There have been deposits worth Rs 28699.65 crores. A record 1,25,697 Bank Mitras (Bank Correspondents) have also been deployed. It also set the Guinness World Record for most bank accounts opened in one week -1,80,96,130.
While opening millions of bank accounts were a challenge, inducing a behavioural change to get people start using their bank accounts was another major challenge. The no of zero balance accounts have registered a steep fall from 76.8% in September 2014 to 32.4% in December 2015. More than Rs 131 crore has also been availed as overdraft so far.
All this was possible because of PM Modi’s thrust and his power of galvanizing masses and the government machinery. This enormous task was taken up in mission mode and achieved with an exemplary partnership and participation of the government and public.
While the bank accounts have given millions of Indians access to banking services, they have also played a major role in stopping corruption. Now, subsidies get deposited directly in the bank accounts in the form of direct benefit transfers, eliminating leakages and scope for any discretionary action. PAHAL Yojana, recently entered the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s largest direct cash transfer scheme. Under PAHAL Yojana, LPG subsidies are directly deposited into the bank accounts. Under this scheme, more than 14.62 crore people are receiving direct cash subsidies. This scheme has also helped identify and block around 3.34 crore duplicate or inactive accounts, helping save thousands of crores. Currently the Government is using Direct Benefit Transfers for around 35-40 schemes and approximately Rs 40,000 crores were directly transferred to the beneficiaries in 2015.
Once the basic banking facilities for people were in place, the NDA Government embarked on a historic move of providing an insurance & pension cover to the citizens. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana provides accident insurance worth Rs 2 Lakh at just Rs 12 per year. Pradhan Mantri Jivan Jyoti Bima Yojana provides life insurance at just Rs 330 per year. Atal Pension Yojana provides a pension of upto Rs 5000 a month depending on the contribution. More than 9.2 crore people have enrolled for Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima & almost 3 crore people have joined Pradhan Mantri Jivan Jyoti Bima Yojana. Around 15.85 lakh people have registered for the Atal Pension Yojana.
Unleashing India’s Entrepreneurial Energy
I strongly believe that India has a lot of latent entrepreneurial energy, which needs to be harnessed so that we become a nation of job givers, more than job seekers. - Narendra Modi
The NDA Government is focused on giving a boost to entrepreneurship. The ‘Make in India’ initiative is based on four pillars to boost entrepreneurship in India, not only in manufacturing but also in other sectors.
New Processes: ‘Make in India’ recognizes ‘ease of doing business’ as the single most important factor to promote entrepreneurship.
The Government is adopting a three pronged strategy to boost entrepreneurship. This is a 3 C Model being worked upon: Compliances, Capital & Contract Enforcement.
India made rapid strides in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings by the Worls Bank rising to 130th rank. Today, starting a new business is easier than ever before. Unnecessary compliances have been removed and a lot of permissions can be obtained online.
Process of applying for Industrial License (IL) and Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum (IEM) has been made online and this service is now available to entrepreneurs on 24x7 basis. Around 20 services are integrated & will function as a single window portal for obtaining clearances from various governments and government agencies.
Capital:Around 58 million non-corporate enterprises provided one 128 million jobs in India. 60% of them were in rural areas. Over 40% were owned by people from the Backward Classes and 15% by Scheduled Castes and Tribes. But bank credit accounted for a tiny share of their financing. Most of them never get any bank credit. In other words the most employment-intensive sector of the economy gets the least credit. To change this scenario, the Govt launched the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana & the MUDRA Bank.
It has been started with the aim of availing collateral-free cheap credit to the small scale entrepreneurs who often have to pay exorbitant interest rates. In the brief period since its launch, it has already sanctioned about 1.18 crore loans amounting to almost 65,000 crores. The number of people getting a loan below Rs 50,000 registered a growth of 555% in April- September 2015 over the corresponding period of the previous year.
Powering India’s Growth
India has set off on an ambitious mission, a mission to provide electricity to 18,000 villages which are still in darkness after almost 7 decades of independence. PM Modi, in his Independence Day speech announced that all remaining villages shall be electrified within 1000 days. Rural Electrification is happening at a rapid pace, and is being done in an unbelievably transparent manner. Data on villages being electrified is available to the public through a mobile app and a web dashboard.
It is difficult to forget that one of the largest power outage in our history happened in India in July 2012, leaving 62 crore people in darkness. Such darkness engulfed the nation, even as more than 24,000 MW of generation capacity lay idle due to lack of fuel like coal and gas. The entire sector reached a vicious cycle of inaction and policy paralysis with surplus generation capacity and massive unutilized investments at one end while large power cuts for the consumer on the other end.
When the NDA Government came to power last year, as many as 2/3 of coal based power plants (66 out of 100 coal plants tracked by Central Electricity Authority) were having critical coal stocks meaning less than 7 days of coal stock. Recovering from such a dire situation, today not a single power plant in the country is facing critical coal stock level.
While working hard to provide electricity to all, the Government has made clean energy a priority. It has set ambitious target to achieve 175 GW energy through renewable sources of energy, which include 100 GW of solar energy.
A capacity addition of 22,566 MW was achieved in the last year which is the highest ever. The peak shortage has reduced from 11.9% in 2008-09 to 3.2%, the lowest ever. Energy deficit during the current year has also reduced from 11.1% in 2008-09 to 2.3%, the lowest ever in the history of India.
On transmission front, there used to be a lot of constraints in supplying power from surplus states to deficit States. Efforts were made to expeditiously synchronize the Southern Grid leading to ‘One Nation, One grid, One Frequency’. The Available transfer Capacity (ATC) during 2013-14 was only 3,450 MW which has been increased by 71% to 5,900 MW this month.
Areas like energy efficiency have seen dynamic growth with more than 75% reduction in LED bulb prices and distribution of more than 4 crore bulbs in less than one year. The target of replacing every single bulb with an LED bulb is on track with 77 crore bulbs to be distributed by 2018. The domestic and streetlight LED bulb programmes will help reduce the peak-load demand by nearly 22 GW, save 11,400crore units of electricity annually and bring about a reduction of 8.5 crore tons in carbon dioxide emissions every year. Setting up 22 GW capacity may have been hailed as a monumental achievement but it takes a different perspective to appreciate the avoidance of such investments while preserving the environment.
Putting the Indian Economy on a Fast-Track
It has been a historic year for the Indian Economy. From a period of low growth, high inflation and shrinking production, the NDA Government has not only strengthened our macro-economic fundamentals, but has also propelled the economy to a higher growth trajectory. India’s GDP Growth rocketed to 7.4%, which is the fastest among all the large economies of the world.
Various rating agencies and think tanks have predicted that India’s growth would accelerate sharply in the next few years under the NDA Government. Banking on the strong fundamentals & reforms being undertaken by the NDA Government, Moody’s upgraded India’s rating from 'stable' to 'positive' recently.
With the Government's thrust on manufacturing, Index of Industrial Production grew at 2.1% this year after the negative growth last year. Inflation (WPI) has seen a steady decline, from 5.55% in April 2014 to -2.65% in April 2015. FDI Inflows are increasing at a historic pace. The FDI Equity Inflows shot up by 40% to reach Rs 1,75,886 crore from Rs 1,25,960 last year.
The Fiscal Deficit is in a state of steady decline. India’s current account deficit reduced from 4.7% of GDP last year to 1.7% of GDP this year. India's Foreign Exchange Reserves have increased significantly, from $ 311.8 Billion to $ 352.1 Billion. This will provide insulation to India in the event of any global shocks.
Ushering in Unprecedented Transparency
Transparent & Corruption-Free Governance reap huge benefits for the nation
While the past decade has seen many tales of arbitrary decision making, corruption and discretion rather than policy dictating crucial decisions, the past year has been a welcome change.
After the Supreme Court Order cancelled the coal block allocations, Govt acted with unparalleled swiftness to ensure transparent & timely auctions. Auction and Allotment proceeds from 67 coal blocks have touched 3.35 lakh crores over the life of the mine.
In the spectrum auctions the Govt’s approach ensured massive gains, in stark contrast to the zero loss theory of the past. The complex issue of defence band identification pending since more than seven years was resolved quickly & good quantity of 2100 MHz released by the Defence Ministry was put into the auction.Spectrum in 4 various bands - 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz were put into simultaneous and multiple rounds of auction for the first time, so that the operators could take informed decision. As against the approved reserve price of Rs 80277 crore, the auction fetched a record Rs.109875 crore.
On the Black Money front, SIT was constituted on the first day of office. Government is working in coordination with Swiss Government & getting information of cases investigated by IT Department. The Government approved the Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Bill 2015. Provisions of the Bill include severe penalties & punishment for undisclosed foreign income and assets. It is also mandatory to quote PAN for purchase /sale of above Rs. 1 lakh.
Connecting India like Never Before
Building the infrastructure for a resurgent India
For the first time, Railways budget focused on structural reforms and infrastructure changes. Announcement of new trains, which used to be an annual political gimmick has now become a routine activity. Numerous passenger-friendly amenities like Wi-fi on railway stations, passenger helpline (138), security helpline (182), paperless unreserved ticketing, e-catering, mobile security app and CCTV cameras for safety of women, etc have been launched. Railways as will act as a locomotive of the economy &connecting mines, coasts, etc. High speed bullet train for Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor has been planned. Feasibility study of New Delhi – Chennai route is underway.
India is also taking rapid strides in the shipping sector under NDA Government. The Sagarmala Project will ensure comprehensive port–led development through development of vibrant coastal communities. The Growth rate of cargo throughput in ports doubled from 4% to 8% this year. Highest ever annual capacity addition of 71 MTPA was recorded. MoU has been signed with Iran for strategic development of Chahabahar Port and access to Afghanistan and Central Asian states. Jal Marg Vikas Project has been launched for promoting transportation and inland waterways down the Ganga.
Ushering in Reforms
Multiple Reforms introduced to ensure all round development.
India is embarking on ushering in game-changing reforms through the use of Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile (JAM), a unique combination of three to implement direct transfer of benefits. This innovative methodology will allow transfer of benefits in a leakage-proof, well-targeted and cashless manner. There would be cut in subsidy leakages but not in subsidy themselves.
NDA Government has built a national consensus and introduced a Bill to amend the Constitution to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The GST will put in place a state-of-the-art indirect tax system by 1st April, 2016. This will create a unified and common domestic market by replacing a confusing array of taxes and preventing their cascading effects.
The Government has started a unique scheme called Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, encourage MPs to take ownership of a village in their constituency and develop this as a model village. It motivates parliamentarians to ensure holistic development of their constituency rising above specific schemes.
The Government has approved the MoPNG proposal to supply pooled Natural Gas at uniform delivered price to all grid connected gas based fertilizer plants for urea production. It has also approved the scheme for utilization of stranded gas based power generation capacity which was a joint proposal from MoPNG and Ministry of Power and will help in revival of 16000 MW stranded gas based power plants.
With the easing of investment caps and controls, India’s high-value industrial sectors – defence, construction and railways – are now open to global participation. Policy in Defence sector has been liberalised and FDI cap raised from 26% to 49%.Portfolio investment in Defence sector permitted upto 24% under the automatic route.100% FDI allowed in Defence sector for modern and state- of- the- art technology on case to case labels.100% FDI under automatic route permitted in construction, operation and maintenance in specified Rail Infrastructure projects
Towards a Swachh Bharat
“A clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150 birth anniversary in 2019,” said Shri Narendra Modi as he launched the Swachh Bharat Mission at Rajpath in New Delhi. On 2nd October 2014, Swachh Bharat Mission was launched throughout length and breadth of the country as a national movement.
By inviting people to participate in the drive, the Swachhta Abhiyan has turned into a National Movement. A sense of responsibility has been evoked among the people through the Clean India Movement. With citizens now becoming active participants in cleanliness activities across the nation, the dream of a ‘Clean India’ once seen by Mahatma Gandhi has begun to get a shape.
Bollywood celebrities to television actors came forward and actively joined the initiative. Noted personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Kailash Kher, Priyanka Chopra and entire cast and crew of SAB TV show ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’ lend a hand to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Numerous sportspersons like Sachin Tendulkar, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom’s contribution the clean India drive have been commendable.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his monthly radio address ‘Mann Ki Baat’, has time and again lauded the efforts of individuals and various organizations across the country that have helped make the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a huge success.
Swachh Bharat Mission in urban areas is focused on building individual toilets, community toilets and solid waste management. In rural areas, the emphasis is on behavioral change intervention including interpersonal communication, strengthening implementation and delivery mechanisms down to the Gram Panchayat level, and giving States flexibility to design delivery mechanisms that take into account local cultures, practices, sensibilities and demands. The incentive for building toilet has been increased by Rs 2000 from Rs 10000 to Rs 12000. Funds are also provided for Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) in Gram Panchayats.
