Author: India Writes Network

Modi mantra: Making India the easiest place for doing business

- by India Writes Network

Putting India on the global investment map, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to make the country the “easiest” destination to do business, which would blend a stable tax regime with a predictable, transparent and fair policy environment.
Unveiling immense possibilities the country’s growing economy offers to the world, Mr Modi, with UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon and US Secretary of State John Kerry sharing the dais, assured investors that the government will “hold your hands whenever needed.” “If you walk one step, we will walk two steps for you,” the prime minister said at the 7th edition of the ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ summit, a biennial show hosted by the Gujarat government since 2003, which has morphed into a must-attend event for top global companies looking to invest in Gujarat and in India. “This event is perhaps the biggest gathering on earth where a budding entrepreneur has opportunity to see President of the World Bank. We are here as a family, not only in terms of space, but because we recognise that someone’s dream is dependent on someone’s direction. All of us want the planet earth to become a better place to live not only in terms of space, but also because we recognise someone’s dream.”
“India offers you 3Ds – Democracy, Demography and Demand and this is what you are looking for. You will not find all of them (3D’s) together at any other destination of world. We have a large number of hands to work and even a larger number of dreams to be realised,” he said.

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Rely on Modi’s India, Ambani unveils $16.5 billion investment

- by India Writes Network

Upping the stakes in the India growth story, India’s billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani unveiled plans for mammoth $16.5 billion (Rs 1,00,000 crore) investments across diverse sectors, and projected that India was on the path to become the world’s fastest growing economy.
The investments will be focused on expanding the RIL petrochemical production capacity and launching the 4G broadband services, which will provide a big boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet projects, including Make in India and Digital India initiatives.
Speaking at the 7th Vibrant Gujarat Summit here, the biggest investor conclave being held in India since the Modi government took charge in May 2014, Mr Ambani, the world’s richest energy billionaire and India’s richest man, underlined that “India is marching forward with a clear vision to emerge as global power even when as most of the world is struggling with low growth.”

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Modi to overseas Indians: Embrace new opportunities in India

- by India Writes Network

It’s a song of India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows how to chant, and enchant the captive audience of overseas Indians with his projection of India as the land of opportunity and a beacon of hope in the world.
“India awaits you with opportunities,” Mr Modi told around 4,000 overseas Indians in his inaugural speech at the 13th annual get-together of the Indian diaspora in Gujarat’s capital on January 8.
“I welcome all of you and say that there are several opportunities waiting for you in India. Times have changed very quickly. The world is looking at India with hope and anticipation,” he said in eloquent Hindi.
Modi exhorted NRIs and PIOs to return to the country, and leverage their formidable talent, experience and expertise to transform India into a self-assured, powerful nation.
“From the world’s richest countries to the poorest of the lot, the whole world has its eye turned on India. They want to embrace India. They want to walk together with India,” he said to applause from the audience.
“There was a time when professionals in India went to distant lands to explore new possibilities. Now India awaits you with opportunities. I want to tell you that India is full of opportunities now,” he told the delegates.

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Modi’s federalism project: A work in progress

- by India Writes Network

Complaints against the UPA government’s discriminating attitude and step-motherly treatment of the states of the Indian Union, particularly of those where the non-Congress parties ruled, and the promise to usher in cooperative federalism if voted to power was one of the main planks of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s electoral agenda in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Now that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been in command of India for over seven months, it is time to have a look at the progress that the country has made in this direction.
Barely months after the announcement, the prime minister has delivered on his promise as the Planning Commission has been replaced with a new think tank-like body, NITI Ayog, which is expected to set the policy agenda for the government. The new body’s Governing Council will comprise state chief ministers and Lt. Governors of Union Territories.
The next few months are going to reveal the government’s strategy for the implementation of its federalism project. It is a work in progress and appears to be going in the right direction, but the next Union Budget and the 14th Finance Commission report would offer concrete evidence of the prime minister’s commitment.

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