100 Days of Modi Government: His Top 10 Quotes----NDTV
- If you work 12 hours, I will work 13. If you work 14 hours, I will work 15 hours, because I am not Pradhan Mantri (Prime Minister) I am the Pradhan Sewak (prime servant).
- From ramparts of the Red Fort, I would like to call people of the world to 'come, make in India'. Come here and manufacture in India. Sell the products anywhere in the world but manufacture here.
- Our heads hang in shame when we hear about rapes. Parents ask about daughters but did anyone dare ask their sons. After all, the rapist is someone's son. As parents, have we asked our sons where he is going? Why not put same yardstick for sons too?
- If we want to get rid of poverty, we need to get rid of financial untouchability. - (Launch of the Jan Dhan Yojana to help provide bank accounts to all Indians)
- The mantra of our country's youth should be to at least make one product that we import. Don't compromise in manufacturing. Stress on zero defect, zero effect.
- (To industrialists in Japan) The red carpet, not red tape awaits you. As software is incomplete without hardware, India needs Japan.
- I was asked, 'Does black magic still exist in India or are there still snake charmers?' I said we used to play with snakes, now we play with the mouse. When we move a mouse the whole world moves.
- I am a very optimistic man and only an optimistic man can bring optimism in the country.
- I believe the government has no business to do business. (I believe in) minimum government, maximum governance.
- Being a Gujarati, money is in my blood...commerce is in my blood. Businesses do not need concessions. They only need the correct environment to flourish in. (In Japan)
100 days of Modi Sarkar: 10 significant developments -NITI CENTRAL
On September 2, Modi Sarkar completes 100 days in Office. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers took Oath of Office and Secrecy on May 26, 10 days after the verdict 2014 was announced.
News starved media, joined by the Congress and its cohorts are desperately searching for the report card of Narendra Modi Government as it enters 100 days in the Office.
Honestly, all an independent commentator could say for now is that the story of India has changed between before and after May 26, the day Narendra Damodardas Modi took change as India’s 14th Prime Minister. He is simply focusing on fixing the 10-year-long policy paralysis of the previous UPA dispensation. His 100 days of work shows Modi Sarkar is on the right track.
Narendra Modi Government has shouldered loads of hopes and aspirations of the people. The Prime Minister looks confident to fulfill those hopes and aspirations. In the last 100 days, the nation has moved from an era of policy paralysis to an era of policy priorities. In 100 days in Office, the Narendra Modi Government has successfully prepared a roadmap for India’s development.
Ever since Modi took the reins, he has been continuing his focus on ‘Minimum Government and Maximum Governance’ in every step. Modi Government’s sheet anchor for governance ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ (Together with all, development for all) has instilled a sense of confidence among the citizens. Undoubtedly, a pro-active approach has been adopted by the Government to fulfill the aspirations of the people. There has been a major shift in work culture across Ministries. A new sense of accountability has gripped the bureaucracy. There is a tremendous amount of pressures on both the Ministers and the bureaucrats to fulfill the tide of expectations of people.
The following are the 10 things Modi Sarkar has achieved in its 100 days in Office:
1. Bringing back Black Money
The first decision Modi Sarkar took after assuming Office was setting up of a Special Investigative Team (SIT), headed by former Supreme Court Judge MB Shah, to unearth illegal money stashed in tax havens. The SIT has already prepared a comprehensive action plan, including creation of an institutional structure that could enable India to fight the battle against black money.
2. Bringing economy back on track
In a bid to arrest inflation, Modi Government asked States to delist fruits and vegetables from the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC Act). This decision has protected farmers from the middle men and succeeded in preventing hoarding. This in turn has helped in taming inflation.
With inflation on check, economic growth is picking up steadily. It is important to note that Indian economy has thrown up the best growth figures in two-and-a-half years. The GDP growth in April-June quarter is the highest in the last nine quarters. This is a sufficient indication that economy is turning around under the leadership of Narendra Modi.
3. Jan Dhan Yojana
Modi Sarkar has rolled out the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. The ambitious scheme aims at a comprehensive financial inclusion by opening of bank accounts of people who have been left out in the process so far. On the inauguration day, a record 1.5 crore bank accounts were opened under this scheme.
4. Infrastructural development
The focal point of the Union Budget 2014 was infrastructure, a sector which was neglected in the last 10 years under the Congress-led UPA rule. The Government has attracted large-scale investments in infrastructural sector by reviving the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), streamlining the Public Private Partnership (PPP) models and creating Infrastructural Investment Trusts (InvITs). Work for the ambitious Diamond Quadrilateral rail network — connecting major metros across the country — is in the full swing. The Narendra Modi Government has laid the groundwork for its ambitious ‘100 smart cities’ project. To develop infrastructure in rural areas, the Government has launched Syama Prasad Mookerjee Rurban Mission and Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana. The Government is also working on strengthening and modernising the boarder infrastructure.
5. Abolishing GOMs, EGoMs
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has abolished all Group of Ministers (GoMs) and Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoMs) which were set up during the UPA tenure. The move is expediting the process of decision-making in the Ministries and ushering in a greater accountability in the system.
6. Streamlining bureaucracy
To take administration closer to people and ensure that governance doesn’t get stuck in red tape, the Narendra Modi Government is streamlining the bureaucracy with thrust on transparency. The Government has amended the All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968. The amended guidelines mandate that the bureaucrats must maintain political neutrality, take decisions and make recommendations on merit alone and take decisions solely in public interest.
7. Disbanding Planning Commission
Narendra Modi Government has disbanded the 64-year-old Planning Commission. In 1950, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru formed Planning Commission on the line of erstwhile Soviet Union with an aim to formulating India’s five year plans. But during the 60-year-long Congress rule, the Commission was mostly used as a parking lot for cronies of the grand old party. They did nothing apart from sucking up to Congress and its Prime Ministers. Narendra Modi Government is in the process of replacing the Planning Commission with a new institution keeping in view of India’s needs amid changing global economic scenario.
8. Recasting judicial appointment
In a path-breaking initiative, Narendra Government has got the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill passed in both the Houses of Parliament. The Bill scraps the Collegium System of appointment of Judges of Supreme Court and the High Courts and established a six-member body for the appointment of the Judges. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will head the NJAC. Besides, the judiciary would be represented by two senior Judges of the Supreme Court. Law Minister and two eminent personalities will be the other members of the Commission.
9. Weeding out archaic laws
The Narendra Modi Government is working overtime to weed out archaic rules and legislations from the statute books. Most of them are laws introduced during the colonial British rule and still prevalent in the country. These dysfunctional laws have no relevance in the present day. These are obsolete laws which only hamper governance by creating confusions. It only complicates the legislation process and stand as a hindrance within the system.
10. Bilateral diplomacy
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s SAARC diplomacy was indeed a bold step towards creating an atmosphere for multilateral economic cooperation. The common challenges that these nations face have made Narendra Modi create a common agenda of growth with mutual cooperation. During his visit to Nepal and Bhutan, Narendra Modi used the greater Hindu heritage as an instrument of foreign policy. Modi Government has given a strong message to Pakistan by calling off the Foreign Secretary-level talks after Pakistani High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit met Kashmiri separatists despite clear no from Foreign Ministry. For the first time in India’s history, New Delhi under the leadership of Narendra Modi has asserted that it can’t be bullied by the pressure from the Kashmiri separatists and various lobbyists. Narendra Modi’s ongoing Japan visit underlines the fact that India-Japan Strategic and Global cooperation can shift the balance of power in Asia.
100 days is too short a time to judge a Government. Let’s wait and watch with patience for the India’s real growth story to take shape in the days to come.
100 days of Modi sarkar a mixed bag, says Dipankar Gupta-India Today
Dipankar Gupta
If the government is to give a 100-day report card every 100 days, then that would be a high watermark in accountability. So, this exercise should not stop now after the first 100 days, but continue with the same periodicity all the way for the next five years.Nevertheless, this initial period gives us a foretaste of things to come.
It is quite likely that we may be wrong in our understanding, but that is what foretastes are all about. In fact, a big negative of the first 100 days of Narendra Modi's prime ministership probably began around 30 days before the poll results were announced. Once it was clear that Modi would sweep the elections, a large number of his supporters from Hindu hardcore organisations came out of the woodwork and began posturing about Hindutva, Hindu Rashtra and even on Kashmir.
COMMUNAL COLOURS
This strain, unfortunately, has carried into Modi's first 100 days. It can be seen in the utterances of Mohan Bhagwat and Yogi Adityanath, and there has been no clear indication from the government to check such exaggerated statements. What Modi said in his Independence Day speech about the inverse relationship between development and identity politics finds no resonance in the way many of his supporters are espousing communal politics.
On the other hand, Modi has sent clear indications that he is a doer and that implementation is his forte. While it is clear that issues of financial inclusion, urban renewal and cleaning up rivers were part of UPA's declared agenda, unfortunately the previous government did very little about them. There is little point in complaining that all that is being done now was thought out earlier, but with very little to show on the ground, boasting about plain good intentions is not very convincing.
Modi has made grand announcements on all these issues and keeps making them to demonstrate his intent on seeing them through. He has come out openly in favour of changing old laws that have lingered from colonial times in our statute books and has instructed that they be done away with in a specific time period. This is a welcome development, so let us see how effectively this task is accomplished.
SPEEDY JUSTICEThe government has also announced the setting up of fast track courts to try parliamentarians charged with serious crimes, and this is a very positive step. Once again, wait and watch.
THE LoP ISSUEBut by denying Congress the Leader of Opposition (LoP) slot, the government is not doing itself a favour. This is such a minor issue that it does not behove a party with such a clear majority to be exercised about. A symbolical gesture of goodwill on part of the government would seem more like an act of noblesse oblige than a concession under pressure.
Likewise, there is no hurry either for the government to enact the judicial Bill, for it would be in good taste to go through procedures correctly instead of jumping the gun. With a majority of the kind it has, why should the BJP stoop to such political moves?
GREEN ALARMDuring the UPA's time, word went around that environment and progress were somehow not very compatible. This is a sentiment Modi wants to expunge. The fear, however, is that in correcting one wrong, the administration should not go to the other extreme of disregarding environmental issues altogether.
The manner in which the National Board for Wildlife was tampered with raises several doubts on this score.
STUDY MATTERSAlso, the fear that higher education would be seriously meddled with has remained, though clarifications were given later that other than the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme of Delhi University, IITs, IIMs and Indian institutes of Sciences would function unhindered. Hopefully this state of affairs will continue.
MULTIPLE ISSUES
Price rise, inflation and unemployment will not be sorted out in a 100 days, which is why the government needs more elbow room on these issues before it can be held accountable for them. The fact that the FDI cap has been raised in several sectors may be good news only if this helps in raising productivity, employment, high technology industry, and, most of all, a robust internal market. We should not be taken in by FDIs on their own, for that is a fetish.
We should instead ask what good has this move actually done to our country.
Likewise, Jan Dhan Yojana is only as good as its implementation. Here again, only time will tell; but a beginning has been made and a strong determination to drive this intervention has been manifested.
DREAM CITIES
Also, the Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana requires careful thinking because villages today are hardly that agricultural anymore. This is why when we plan ideal villages we need to think afresh. Along the same lines, the establishment of 100 smart cities should begin with getting the old dilapidated towns and metropolitan centres up to speed. We can look around the corner and dream of setting up new cities, but let us begin with what we have.
HOUSE PERFORMANCE
So far in Parliament, this government has functioned efficiently in terms of hours spent in work and decisions taken, but that is an outcome of the absolute majority the BJP commands.
Modi also seems to have won people over with his foreign policy manoeuvres. His recent trip to Japan stands out because bonhomie did not come in the way of taking some hard, tangible economic decisions.
FOREIGN POLICY
Staying with foreign policy, but looking to its domestic fallout, Modi has sent out a strong signal in keeping the Hurriyat in place. True, he went against past practices on this issue, but that is no reason why the Hurriyat should be given the prominence it receives in the actual working out of India-Pakistan relations.
HIGH HOPES
The hopes that ride on Modi are reflected in the optimism of the stock market, but people are still waiting for their lives to change. A 100 days, as I said earlier, can only give a foretaste of things to come, but once-adoring masses can suddenly become very unforgiving if things don't work out the way they expected them to.
The first 100 days had their good and bad points, but all said and done, it has raised hopes whose realisations can be objectively measured.
This can be Modi's great opportunity to stand out as a leader who can dare to break the mould. His greatest achievement will be if he can simultaneously foster development and goodwill, progress and partnership.
After all, it was Modi who said at the Red Fort that the country will march forward economically if it leaves the past well behind.
The writer is Distinguished Professor at Shiv Nadar University and Director, Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory
It is quite likely that we may be wrong in our understanding, but that is what foretastes are all about. In fact, a big negative of the first 100 days of Narendra Modi's prime ministership probably began around 30 days before the poll results were announced. Once it was clear that Modi would sweep the elections, a large number of his supporters from Hindu hardcore organisations came out of the woodwork and began posturing about Hindutva, Hindu Rashtra and even on Kashmir.
COMMUNAL COLOURS
This strain, unfortunately, has carried into Modi's first 100 days. It can be seen in the utterances of Mohan Bhagwat and Yogi Adityanath, and there has been no clear indication from the government to check such exaggerated statements. What Modi said in his Independence Day speech about the inverse relationship between development and identity politics finds no resonance in the way many of his supporters are espousing communal politics.
On the other hand, Modi has sent clear indications that he is a doer and that implementation is his forte. While it is clear that issues of financial inclusion, urban renewal and cleaning up rivers were part of UPA's declared agenda, unfortunately the previous government did very little about them. There is little point in complaining that all that is being done now was thought out earlier, but with very little to show on the ground, boasting about plain good intentions is not very convincing.
Modi has made grand announcements on all these issues and keeps making them to demonstrate his intent on seeing them through. He has come out openly in favour of changing old laws that have lingered from colonial times in our statute books and has instructed that they be done away with in a specific time period. This is a welcome development, so let us see how effectively this task is accomplished.
SPEEDY JUSTICEThe government has also announced the setting up of fast track courts to try parliamentarians charged with serious crimes, and this is a very positive step. Once again, wait and watch.
THE LoP ISSUEBut by denying Congress the Leader of Opposition (LoP) slot, the government is not doing itself a favour. This is such a minor issue that it does not behove a party with such a clear majority to be exercised about. A symbolical gesture of goodwill on part of the government would seem more like an act of noblesse oblige than a concession under pressure.
Likewise, there is no hurry either for the government to enact the judicial Bill, for it would be in good taste to go through procedures correctly instead of jumping the gun. With a majority of the kind it has, why should the BJP stoop to such political moves?
GREEN ALARMDuring the UPA's time, word went around that environment and progress were somehow not very compatible. This is a sentiment Modi wants to expunge. The fear, however, is that in correcting one wrong, the administration should not go to the other extreme of disregarding environmental issues altogether.
The manner in which the National Board for Wildlife was tampered with raises several doubts on this score.
STUDY MATTERSAlso, the fear that higher education would be seriously meddled with has remained, though clarifications were given later that other than the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme of Delhi University, IITs, IIMs and Indian institutes of Sciences would function unhindered. Hopefully this state of affairs will continue.
MULTIPLE ISSUES
Price rise, inflation and unemployment will not be sorted out in a 100 days, which is why the government needs more elbow room on these issues before it can be held accountable for them. The fact that the FDI cap has been raised in several sectors may be good news only if this helps in raising productivity, employment, high technology industry, and, most of all, a robust internal market. We should not be taken in by FDIs on their own, for that is a fetish.
We should instead ask what good has this move actually done to our country.
Likewise, Jan Dhan Yojana is only as good as its implementation. Here again, only time will tell; but a beginning has been made and a strong determination to drive this intervention has been manifested.
DREAM CITIES
Also, the Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana requires careful thinking because villages today are hardly that agricultural anymore. This is why when we plan ideal villages we need to think afresh. Along the same lines, the establishment of 100 smart cities should begin with getting the old dilapidated towns and metropolitan centres up to speed. We can look around the corner and dream of setting up new cities, but let us begin with what we have.
HOUSE PERFORMANCE
So far in Parliament, this government has functioned efficiently in terms of hours spent in work and decisions taken, but that is an outcome of the absolute majority the BJP commands.
Modi also seems to have won people over with his foreign policy manoeuvres. His recent trip to Japan stands out because bonhomie did not come in the way of taking some hard, tangible economic decisions.
FOREIGN POLICY
Staying with foreign policy, but looking to its domestic fallout, Modi has sent out a strong signal in keeping the Hurriyat in place. True, he went against past practices on this issue, but that is no reason why the Hurriyat should be given the prominence it receives in the actual working out of India-Pakistan relations.
HIGH HOPES
The hopes that ride on Modi are reflected in the optimism of the stock market, but people are still waiting for their lives to change. A 100 days, as I said earlier, can only give a foretaste of things to come, but once-adoring masses can suddenly become very unforgiving if things don't work out the way they expected them to.
The first 100 days had their good and bad points, but all said and done, it has raised hopes whose realisations can be objectively measured.
This can be Modi's great opportunity to stand out as a leader who can dare to break the mould. His greatest achievement will be if he can simultaneously foster development and goodwill, progress and partnership.
After all, it was Modi who said at the Red Fort that the country will march forward economically if it leaves the past well behind.
The writer is Distinguished Professor at Shiv Nadar University and Director, Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory
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