Undid Mistake Of The Past, Retrospective Tax: PM Modi At CII Event

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the country's economic growth is picking up pace again and the domestic industry needs to enhance its risk-taking appetite.

He also said that taking reforms is a matter of conviction for the government, which is ready to take all risks in the national interest.

"We have taken bold decisions. Reforms continued even during pandemic. The government is doing reforms not out of compulsion but out of conviction," he said while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) annual meeting.

The theme for the CII Annual Meeting 2021 is 'India@75: Government and Business working together for Aatmanirbhar Bharat'. The meeting comes days ahead of August 15, when the country celebrates its 75th Independence Day.

Here are the highlights of PM Modi's address:

• Today's meeting is very important as it comes at a crucial time - when we all are battling the COVID-19 crisis. During this battle against COVID-19, whenever there was a need, industry stepped up and contributed immensely.
• This meeting of CII is taking place this time in the atmosphere of 75th Independence Day. This is a huge opportunity, for new resolutions, for new goals of the Indian industry. The huge responsibility for the success of the self-reliant India campaign is on Indian industries.
• The several steps taken by the government has led to record FDI in India. We're also creating new records in FPI and the forex reserve is at an all-time high.
• Today, Indians believe in the products made in India. The people of the country have made up their mind and the industry sector needs to formulate its policies and framework according to this. This will help all of you in the road towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
• The start ups are showing self-confidence. Several unicorns are becoming the image of the nation. 7-8 years ago, India might have had just 3-4 unicorns. Today, there are nearly 60 unicorns in India. Out of these 60, 21 of them have been developed in the last few months.
• The reforms that we've done weren't easy; but they were warranted for decades. However, these decisions were never taken. We took those bold decisions, and continued making new reforms even during the pandemic. The country has stood with those reforms.
• For instance, commercial coal mining has been started, new reforms have been done in defence sector, space and atomic sector have been opened up for the private sector amongst a few.
• There's a government in place that can take the boldest decisions keeping the nation in mind and not political benefits. GST wasn't implemented by the previous govts because of its political risk. We did not just implement it, we're also witnessing record collections.
• There's a government in place that is trying to remove all bottlenecks and pushing all boundaries. There's a government that is taking your suggestions to strengthen our industry.