Expressing confidence in India's growth story, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that the country will tread back on its development path as he has complete faith in its industry and people.
He highlighted that while India continues to fight the coronavirus crisis, this is the time to stabilise and speed up the economy.
"You must be surprised how am I so confident. I believe in India's industry leaders. Yes, we will definitely get our growth back," expressed PM Modi, speaking at the 125th annual session of top industrial body--the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
He added the COVID-19 pandemic "may have slowed us down but the reality is India has entered Unlock 1.0, getting growth back has already started."
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"India has left lockdown behind and is now moving to Unlock 1. A lot of economic activities have started and some will start on June 8. In fact, we have already made headway into Getting Growth Back," PM Modi said.
Talking about self-reliance being India's priority, he stressed on the need to focus on Make in India which will get a big boost by the recent reforms announced by the government.
"It is important now that Make in India products become Made for the World. We have to increase productivity and set new targets in front of us," PM Modi affirmed.
Hailing the MSME sector as the country's growth engine, the Prime Minister enunciated that they are key to India's economy.
"Lakhs of MSMEs in India are the engines of India's overall growth. We all know how MSMEs are key to India's economy. But for a long time, there had been a need to define MSMEs and increase their scope to allow them to grow, which has now been done. The decisions taken on MSMEs will be the fuel that will power the sector to grow exponentially," PM Modi highlighted.
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He underlined that "the need of the hour is that more and more products are "Made in India", which are "Made for the world". We have to focus on reducing imports."
PM Modi also underscored the private sector's role as a partner in ensuring India's growth which will help India become 'Atma Nirbhar' (self-reliant). "Getting Growth Back is not very difficult. Indian Industries have a clear path for this which is Atma Nirbhar Bharat. Atma Nirbhar Bharat can be completely integrated with the world economy," he avowed.
This is the Prime Minister's first major speech on economy since Centre's 'Unlock 1.0' announcement on May 30 to reopen the country after over two months of lockdown to tackle the COVID-19 spread.
PM Modi delivered the inaugural address at CII annual session 2020, themed-"Getting Growth Back" via video conferencing on Tuesday.