Union Minister of Railways Shri Ashwini Vaishnav today inaugurated the National Conclave: 9 Saal – Seva, Sushasan, Gareeb Kalyan at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The event witnessed the presence of Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Shri Anurag Thakur, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Dr L. Murugan. Secretary, Min of I&B Shri Apurva Chandra and CEO, Prasar Bharati, Shri Gaurav Dwivedi were also present on the occasion.
Union Minister Shri Ashwini Vaishnav made a comparative presentation juxtaposing the performance of the governments before 2014 with the government since and said while the previous governance efforts had become synonymous with scams, the current Government works with the ethos of ‘Pai Pai Se Gareeb Ki Bhalai’ (every penny for the benefit of the poor). This has been reflected in the way schemes and programmes have been implemented keeping the poor and the destitute as its central pillar, he added.
The Minister underlined that owning a house is a factor that brings a transformative change in a poor person’s life. To that end, today 3.5 crore houses have been constructed in the country under PM Awas Yojana bringing qualitative change in the lives of the poor.
The Minister said that the idea of connecting every house with piped water connection was always considered a behemoth, never to be attempted or achieved. But, he added, the Prime Minister took it up as a challenge and today 12 crore people have water connections. At the same time, he said the Government has strived to end the travesty that was traditional chulhas and provided 9.6 crore families with gas cylinders.
He further spoke about the efforts of the government to come through for the people in need and said that when the world was struggling to fight the travails of the COVID19 pandemic, the government overcame massive logistical challenges to bring free ration to 80 crore people. No government has spoken of fundamental human needs, like toilets, that are the indicators of inclusive growth, during Independence Day speeches. But PM Modi spoke about the construction of toilets in every house in his speech from Red Fort. This has caused a revolution in the field of women safety and sanitation with the construction of 11.72 crore toilets today.
Shri Vaishnav said that India today runs the world’s largest healthcare insurance programme under Ayushman Bharat that has created provisions for free medicare up to Rs five lakh for the needy, the total coverage which is more than the population of the USA and Russia combined.
Shri Vaishnav credited the Prime Minister with creating a new definition of social justice taking it away from appeasement and towards empowerment.
The Minister said that domestic infrastructure has seen an unprecedented makeover since 2014, which was largely missing earlier due to a lack of proper mindset and thought process in the past. He cited the creation of 74 airports in 9 years, a figure matching the number created till 2014. He added that where 91 thousand kilometers of road were created since independence, almost 54 thousand kilometers have been constructed since 2014. India has gone from having no waterways till 2014 to having 111 waterways today and India’s railway stations have world-class facilities like airports.
The Minister said that India had lagged in world economic rankings for a long time, but today India stands tall as the 5th largest economy. He further said that India is well on its way to becoming the 4th largest economy in another two years and the third largest in another six years.
The Minister spoke about the government’s strong commitment to national security and said that when in past India has been at the receiving end of major terror activities, today the country has the means and willingness to respond to attacks in kind.
Shri Anurag Thakur, while addressing the audience gathered at the conclave, said that the past nine years have seen a dramatic change in the life of the common people of India and the achievements of the Government have surpassed expectations of the people. He exemplified this by adding further that where India was a weak and ramshackle economy riddled with corruption in the past, today it has covered the distance from Fragile Five to Top Five economies of the world.
He further stated that while the benefits of government schemes used to reach only a few in the past, the government today works with the motto of Antyodaya, where the Government is committed to the upliftment of the last person standing at the end of the queue. Herein lies the secret of our efforts that have lifted 27% of people out of poverty, he added. A combination of a sense of service, big ideas, good governance, infusion of technology, and building transparency and accountability into the delivery mechanism, are the things that have gone into ensuring last-mile delivery of public services.
The Minister said that the government has been steadfast in shedding legacies of the colonial past and adopting modern and domestic symbols. This is evident in the creation of the Kartavya Path and will be evident in the new parliament.
The Minister highlighted that the Prime Minister had said that the youth had a critical role to play in shaping the future of this country. To that end, the Minister credited the youth for achieving a milestone where India can today boast of almost one lakh startups and over hundred Unicorns.
The Minister said that while on the one hand the country answered the Prime Minister’s call for Har Ghar Tiranga, the same tricolor was used by students of other countries to get out of a conflict zone during Operation Ganga. While surveys have called him the most popular leader, Shri Thakur said that he has in fact made the tricolour the strongest flag in the world.
Secretary Shri Apurva Chandra welcomed all the guests for the various thematic sessions during the day. He also welcomed the audience from various sections of society.
The National Conclave on 9 years of the Government is comprised of three thematic sessions after the inaugural session and a valedictory session.
Session 1 “India: Surging Ahead” moderated by Shri Nitin Gokhale, Senior Journalist will see participation from
- Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises
- Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals
- Debjani Ghosh, President of NASSCOM
- Surjit Bhalla, Former Executive Director for International Monetary Fund, India
- Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor, State Bank of India
- Deepa Sayal, President and Patron in Chief, IWIL India
Session 2: Jan Jan Ka Vishwas moderated by Richa Anirudh, Journalist will see participation from
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Actor
- Cynthia McCaffrey, UNICEF Representative to India
- Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Limited (Video message)
- Padma Shri Shanti Teresa Lakra, Nurse
- Nikhat Zareen, Boxer
- Anil Prakash Joshi, Environmentalist Divya Jain, Co-founder, Seekho
Session 3: Yuva Shakti: Galvanizing India moderated by Raunac, Radio Jockey, Red FM with the following panelists
- Ritesh Agarwal, CEO, OYO Rooms Rishab Shetty, Actor
- Amaan Ali Bangash, Musician
- Viren Rasquinha, Former Indian Hockey Captain
- Yashodhara Bajoria, Director, Espresso Technologies
- Akhil Kumar, Boxer
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