PM Narendra Modi said centre will invest Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure building.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech today said he was confident India would be able to achieve a $5 trillion economy in the next five years. "Incremental progress" is something India cannot wait, he said, adding what the country needs is a "high jump".
"India does not want incremental progress. A high jump is needed; our thought process has to be expanded. We have to keep in mind global best practices and build good systems," PM Modi said, addressing the nation from the Red Fort on India's 73rd Independence Day.
His comments came amid signs of severe stress in key sectors, including automobile and fast-moving consumer goods. A credit crunch in non-banking financial companies that provide a bulk of loans to consumers who don't want to approach big banks has led to a cascading effect. Automakers have frozen production and cut thousands of jobs. Analysts say there is contraction in several sectors that will have an effect on consumption.
PM Modi also announced that his government would invest Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure building.
He said India has changed and the way it thinks has changed. "We are no longer content with mediocrity."
"Today, when a railway station is made five-star, the locals ask, 'When will we get an airport?' When a new rail track reaches a town or village, locals ask, 'When will we get the Vande Bharat Express?' When a road comes up at a village, they ask, 'When are we getting a highway?' When electricity reaches the remotest areas, people ask, 'When will we get 24X7 electricity?'"
This, he said, was New India.
"This shows the aspirations and expectations of the people of New India, and we will do our best to ensure that their expectations are met," he said.
PM Modi was addressing his first Independence Day speech after winning a second straight term in the national election earlier this year.
"In the first 70 years since our Independence, we became a $2 trillion economy. But only in the last five years between 2014 and 2019, we added $1 trillion to it, making India a $3 trillion economy. And if we could do that in just five years, I am confident we will make India a $5 trillion economy in the next five years," he said.
The centre while presenting the Union Budget this year had said it would attempt to take India to a $5 trillion economy in five years.