Infrastructure, jobs to be the focus of PM’s I-Day address

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first Independence Day speech from the historic Red Fort is expected to roll out concrete proposals with special emphasis on infrastructure, employment generation, an ambitious financial inclusion plan and his pet project of cleaning the Ganga.

Inputs from various ministries are being collected and collated by an informal group of ministers that includes Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, HRD Minister Smriti Irani, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar and Power Minister Piyush Goyal.

The ministers have started holding parleys to prepare a blueprint that will be finally examined by the Prime Minister.

“It is not a formal committee or anything. We are simply collecting inputs from the ministries and making a draft for the Prime Minister’s perusal,” one of the ministers engaged in the ongoing preparations told BusinessLine .

Unlike his predecessor Manmohan Singh, whose Independence Day speech last year was dubbed by Modi as “uninspiring”, the new incumbent is apparently eager to showcase his vision for the future. The speech is expected to be the PM’s answer to the immediate issues of inflation, employment and entrepreneurship, corruption and price rise.

Among his ambitious plans expected to be unveiled is the massive financial inclusion drive that envisages a bank account for 150 million Indians by August 2018. Cleaning of the Ganga and accompanying projects such as setting up sewage treatment facilities in major cities along the river bank and building hydro-electric projects are expected to be announced in the PM’s Independence Day address.

Plans for employment generation through a renewed thrust on research and development (R&D) may also be part of Modi’s speech.

He is expected to talk also about the long-term steps the Government is taking to rein in inflation.

Some measures may include putting in place strict rules and special courts to stop hoarding and black-marketing; setting up a price stabilisation fund; unbundling FCI operations into procurement, storage and distribution for greater efficiency; leveraging technology to disseminate real-time data to farmers, on production, prices, imports, stocks and overall availability; creating a national agricultural market and promoting specific crops and vegetables linked to regional food habits.

Plans may be unveiled with regard to development of next generation infrastructure — a gas grid on the lines of power grids, national optical fibre network, railway modernisation, building world-class ports, an IIT, IIM and AIIMS in every State, new cities, development of twin-city network, satellite cities, and so on.

Besides the initiatives to increase farm productivity — increase in public investment, bringing down the cost of agricultural inputs, modernisation and technological support — steps for industrial promotion may also be announced.

Single-window clearance of projects, fast-tracking environmental clearances, renewal of MSME sector and high priority to manufacturing with adequate infrastructure support — rail network, ports, 24-hour power, roads network — are some other measures the PM is expected to touch upon in his address.

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