Watch: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s take on reimagining governance, breaking from the past

Reimagining and reinventing the approach to governance and tackling the major challenges of poverty, corruption and policy paralysis in the country has been the hallmark of his government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.

Addressing the Economic Times Global Business Summit in Delhi with the theme “Reimagine Business, Reimagine the World,” the Prime Minister said his government had transformed the lives of the poor and the weaker sections through honest and prompt delivery of welfare schemes through a “people first” approach. This was in sharp contrast to the previous governments who were aware of problems confronting the people, but adopted a “mai-baap” approach to governance, he added.

“When the country gave us an opportunity to serve in 2014, the first step we took was to reimagine the approach to issues,” the PM said. “We decided to reimagine, reinvent every single element of governance after 2014. We reimagined how the government can improve welfare delivery to empower the poor. We reimagined how the government can create infrastructure in a more efficient way. We reimagined the kind of relationship the government should have with the people.”

PM Modi pointed out that his government had imbibed the concept of “anti-fragile”—of turning adversity into opportunity and emerging stronger. “In last 3 years, when the world was suffering sometimes from Covid pandemic, sometimes from war and sometimes from the challenges of natural disasters, India and Indians displayed unprecedented strength. India has shown the world the real meaning of anti-fragile,” PM Modi said.

Citing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s famous observation that of every one rupee allocated for the poor in the budget only 15 paise reaches them as the rest is siphoned off due to corruption in the system, PM Modi said that his government had directly transferred Rs 28 lakh crore into the accounts of people through the direct benefit transfer (DBT) transfer schemes. The DBT scheme which ensures that 100 per cent of the money reaches the beneficiaries is an example of “reimagine” in governance, he explained.

The government’s policy of converting the country’s backward districts into “aspirational districts “ was yet another example of reimagination in governance, he added.

PM Modi pointed out that the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had said that the day every Indian has a toilet we will be able to say that the country has reached a higher level of development. PM Modi said that while there was an awareness of the problem there was no solution that was found to this till 2014.

When the BJP government came to power less than 40% Indians had toilets, now this figure has gone up to 100% because 10 crore toilets were constructed and Swachh Bharat campaign was launched to provide sanitation coverage to the rural areas, PM Modi explained.

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