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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that Google could have been developed in India had the enabling policy support been provided. He urged States to take full advantage of the PLI (production linked incentive) scheme and attract maximum investment.
“We recently liberalised geospatial data. If we could have done this 10 years back, it is likely that Google would have been made in India, not outside. The talent is Indian but the product is not,” he said while delivering opening remarks at the 6th Governing Council meeting of NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog.
Strengthening business
The Prime Minister said that keeping in mind the aspirations of a young country like India, modern infrastructure has to be built. “Innovation has to be encouraged and more technology should be used to provide better opportunities for education and skills,” he said while stressing the need for strengthening “our businesses, MSMEs and start-ups”.
He said short-listing the products of hundreds of districts according to its speciality has promoted them and also led to a healthy competition among States. He urged the States to take this to the block level, make full use of the resources and increase exports.
He stressed the importance of better coordination and a policy framework between the Centre and the States for the country’s development. “For the common man, there are thousands of compliances which can be removed. Now that we have technology, we don’t need to ask people for the same things again and again. I would request the States to reduce the compliance burden on the common man. This is important for ease of living. The Centre is also working on that,” he said.
Farm focus
Talking about the farm sector, the Prime Minister said ₹65,000 crore is spent on importing edible oils which should have gone to our farmers.
“We can stop this. But we need policies to make this happen. This money can go to the farmers. There are many products that farmers can grow for the nation as well for exports. For this, is it important that all States plan their agro-climatic regional policy strategy and help farmers as per that,” he said.
Modi also urged the States to focus on storage and processing of agricultural products to reduce their wastage. He stressed the need to export processed, rather than raw, food items to increase profits. He said reforms are very important for “our farmers to get the necessary economic resources, better infrastructure and modern technology.”
The Prime Minister said the Central government introduced PLI schemes for various sectors providing an excellent opportunity to increase manufacturing in the country. He urged the States to take full advantage of this scheme and attract maximum investments and also reap the benefits of reduced corporate tax rates.
On the funds allocated for infrastructure in the Budget, the Prime Minister said this would help the country’s economy advance on many levels.
He stressed on the importance of making the States self-reliant and giving a momentum to development in their Budgets.
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