NEW DELHI, Jun 11 (Agencies): Pitching for the need to project India's potential on a global stage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the time has come for India to stand tall. Responding to President Pranab Mukherjee's address, Modi laid out a roadmap for the development of India. He promised to fulfil every promise made by his government.
"It is the collective responsibility of all elected representatives to fulfil the faith reposed in us by the electorate. I reassure the house that all the promises made in the President's speech will be delivered," Modi said.
Giving the example of his time as Gujarat chief minister when he lived up to the promise of providing 24-hour electricity across the state, Modi said: "It is understood that people will have doubts... But I assure this house that the path mentioned by the president, we will leave no stone unturned to fulfil them."
Stating that the questions raised on the promises by his government are valid, Modi spelt out key mantras that will be followed in order to achieve growth and ensure poverty elimination.
Enhance Agricultural Productivity: Emphasising the need to use IT for availability of real-time data, Modi said that agriculture sector will benefit with timely transportation of food from part to the other. He also cited the example of Sikkim and said that organic farming should be encouraged in the Northeastern region.
"Sikkim is a small state, sparsely populated, but is set to become the country's first wholly organic state, which is a matter of pride," Modi said. "There exists a massive demand for organic agricultural produce in the world today. A large section of the world's population today is interested in holistic healthcare, and is willing to pay any amount of money for such organic products," he said.
"If a small state like Sikkim can do it, why can't we dream of developing the whole of north-east as an organic state? The government of India will help it in capturing the global market."
"We have to make sure that we enhance protein content in pulses in order to fight malnutrition," he pitched. Technology needs to move from lab to land, Modi said. "Today the world looks at India for software engineers. But we are yet to come up with a technology that provides real-time data," he said. "An agri-rail network should ensure movement of food during lull hours of railways," Modi added.
Poverty elimination: "We will empower the poor to enable them to fight poverty and come out of it. We are sincerely committed to bring down prices; it is our collective responsibility to ensure nobody sleeps hungry," he said.
Modi said that education should be treated as an important weapon to fight against poverty. "It is the responsibility of the government to listen to the poor and work for their welfare. The government is for the poor," he stressed.
From 'Scam India' to 'Skilled India': "The world increasingly needs skilled man-power and India has a very young population," Modi said. "Our neighbour China is getting older, but India has youth power," he said.
"Today India is seen as 'Scam India', we need to make the world see it as 'Skilled India'," he said. Modi went on to say that India should look to exporting teachers. "The world needs teachers. A normal export will fetch you dollars, but exporting Science and Maths teachers will get a whole lot of talent," Modi said.
No state-specific model of development: Attempting to bust the myth that he would be following the 'Gujarat model of development' across the country, Modi said that within Gujarat there were multiple models that were not applicable across districts. "I cannot apply the KutchBSE 4.96 % model to other parts of Gujarat. There are different parts of the country from which one can learn examples. Tamil Nadu is a good model for rain-water harvesting," he said.
"Different states offer different lessons and we plan to implement the best examples. We can learn from Chhattisgarh for PDS and Nagaland for tribal development," he added.
"I am glad that the debate has now shifted to development where states are competing on the basis of their growth models," he said. "We believe in giving greater power to states. That will enhance the federal structure of the country," Modi added.