PM Narendra Modi and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook townhall in Menlo Park, California.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Facebook townhall said that his government aims to convert the country's economy from existing $8 trillion dollars to $20 trillion dollars.
Projecting India as a "heaven" for investors, PM Modi said Delhi is working on deregulation and ensuring 'ease of doing business.'
In the townhall Q&A at the Facebook Headquarters along with its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, PM Modi spoke about efforts to revive the faith among foreign investors, saying reforms are taking place speedily and the government had managed to "restore the lost confidence" during the last 15 months as he appeared to take a dig at the previous UPA dispensation.
He said his government was laying thrust on three sectors particularly - agriculture, services and manufacturing - along with building the physical and digital infrastructure simultaneously.
During the 45-minute session, he also spoke in detail about the benefits of social media, particularly how it has been useful to him to connect with the people within the country and abroad, and how it can help take corrective steps if some government steps go wrong.
Noting that India is a "heaven" for investors, he said, "I do not believe that there is dearth of money. Countries have money but do not know where to invest. I am giving them the address. Here is the place (India)."
"We are bringing technology, transparency, efficiency, ease and effectiveness in governance," PM Modi said.
The Prime Minister asserted that during his 15-month tenure, the "scale and speed" of reforms has improved significantly and even the global bodies like World Bank and IMF have forecast a high growth for India.
At the same time, he said India is a huge country and it will take time for the changes to become visible, as he answered a question about the slow pace of reforms.
"It is not a scooter whose direction you can see changing easily. A 40-compartment train takes time... India is such a huge country," he said.
While talking about the speed of reforms, PM Modi appeared to take a dig at the previous governments as he said that nationalisation of banks was undertaken 40 years back but 60 per cent of the population was without a bank account till his dispensation introduced the Jandhan scheme last year.
"180 million accounts were opened within 100 days of our government. This is the speed and scale of change," he said.