Prime Minister Narendra Modi Addresses Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2024 In New Delhi.

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New Delhi, Delhi, 16th of November, 2024 : The Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2024 in New Delhi today. Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister remarked that the Hindustan Times was inaugurated 100 years ago by Mahatma Gandhi and congratulated the Hindustan Times (HT) for its historic journey of 100 years and all the people who were associated with it since its inauguration. He wished them the best for their future endeavours. Having visited the exhibition of HT at the venue, Shri Modi said it was more of an experience and urged all the delegates to visit it. He added that he witnessed the old newspapers of the days when India got its independence and constitution was enforced. Shri Modi acknowledged that many stalwarts like Martin Luther King, Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookherjee, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Dr M.S Swaminathan had written articles for HT. He added that the long journey, which witnessed the freedom struggle as well as treading forward with hopes in the post-independence period, has been phenomenal and amazing. The Prime Minister said that he felt the same excitement to read the news about merger of Kashmir with India like every other citizen in October 1947. However, he added, at that moment he also realised how indecisiveness had kept Kashmir mired in violence for seven decades. Shri Modi said but it is heartening that these days news of record voting in the elections in J&K is published in papers. Shri Modi remarked that he found another newspaper print very special where on one side of it, there was news of Assam being declared a disturbed area while on the other side, there was news of Atal Ji laying the foundation of Bhartiya Janata Party. He added that it was such a pleasant coincidence that today BJP is playing a big role in bringing permanent peace in Assam.

Recalling his participation in the 1st Bodoland Mohotsov yesterday, Shri Modi remarked that he was astonished to find poor media coverage of the event. He added that it was a great achievement when the youth and people had given up violence after 5 decades and were celebrating a cultural event in Delhi. He added that the lives of the people had transformed after the 2020 Bodo Peace Accord. As part of the HT Summit exhibition, Shri Modi saw pictures of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai and said there was a time when the people felt unsafe in their own house and cities due to the terror sponsored by the neighbouring countries. However, he added, now the times have changed and terrorists in their own houses don’t feel safe.

The Prime Minister remarked that in its 100 years, Hindustan Times has seen 25 years of slavery and 75 years of freedom along with the dispensations that have made India’s fate, shown direction to India along with the capability and wisdom of the common man of India. He added that experts have often made mistakes in recognizing this capability of the common citizen of India. Touching upon history, Shri Modi said when the British were leaving India, it was said that the country would disintegrate & break down and when emergency was imposed, some people had assumed that now the emergency will remain forever while some people and institutions had taken refuge with those who imposed the emergency. Even at that point of time, Shri Modi said, the citizens of India stood up and uprooted the emergency. Further explaining the strength of common man, Shri Modi hailed the spirit of common citizens in fighting a strong battle against the COVID pandemic.

Touching upon the past, the Prime Minister said there was a time in the 1990’s when India had seen 5 elections in a span of 10 years evident of the instability in the country. He added that while the experts writing in the newspapers had predicted that things would continue in the same manner, the citizens of India had once again proved them wrong. Shri Modi said that today, there is talk of uncertainty and instability all around the world with many countries in the world seeing new dispensations coming to power, whereas in India, people had elected the same government for the third time.

Talking about policies in the past, Shri Modi said the phrase ‘Good economics is bad politics’ was being promoted by experts and supported by the Governments. This, he said, had become a means to the earlier Governments to cover up bad governance and inefficiency. He added that this had led to an unbalanced development in the country which had hampered the trust of the people in the Government. The Prime Minister remarked that his Government had won back the trust of the people by ensuring the Mantra of Progress of the people, Progress by the people and Progress for the people. He added that the Government’s aim was to build a new and developed India and the people of India had entrusted them with the capital of their trust. Shri Modi remarked that despite misinformation, disinformation in the age of social media, the citizens of India have faith in us, in our government.

Shri Modi highlighted that when the trust of the people increases, their confidence increases, which results in a different effect on the development of the country. Emphasising on the importance of Risk-taking, Shri Modi remarked that our ancestors took risk which helped us to promote Indian goods and services in the foreign countries and make India a hotspot of commerce and culture. However, he added, that this culture of risk-taking was lost in the post-independence period by the previous Governments. Shri Modi remarked that India was seeing development and changes in the last 10 years since his Government came to power and gave new energy to the risk taking culture among the citizens of India. He added that our youth were finding opportunities and taking risks in various fields which was evident in the registration of more than 1.25 lakh startups in India. The Prime Minister said there was a time when even taking up sports as a profession was a risk. However, he added, today, even the youth of our small towns are taking this risk and bringing glory to the country in the world. Citing example of the women associated with self-help groups, Shri Modi said today, about 1 crore lakhpati didis are running their own businesses by becoming entrepreneurs in every village.

“Indian society, today, is filled with unprecedented aspirations and We have made these aspirations the basis of our policies”, said Shri Modi. He added that the Government had promoted a model of development consisting of the combination of employment through investment and dignity through development. The Prime Minister added that where there is investment, employment is generated through investment leading to development and that development increases the dignity of the citizens of India. He cited the example of building toilets in the country, which is a means of security and dignity along with convenience. Shri Modi said it also accelerated development, thereby making evident the success of the mantra of Employment through Investment, Dignity through Development on ground. He also cited the example of LPG gas cylinders, which was considered as a status symbol in the past. Shri Modi remarked that his Government made it a priority to provide gas connection to every house while previous Governments were debating on the number of cylinders to be given to people. He added that there were more than 30 crore gas connections in the country as against 14 crore in 2014. Shri Modi further highlighted that there was supporting infrastructure to ensure the demand of the gas cylinders is met. This, he said, had also created employment right from setting up of bottling plants at various places to creating distribution centres to delivery of cylinders. Shri Modi also listed other examples such as mobile phone, Rupay card, UPI etc which were based on the Investment to Employment, Development to Dignity model of development.

The Prime Minister emphasized that it was imperative to understand another approach of the government to understand the growth trajectory that India is on today. He added that the approach was “Spend Big For The People and Save Big For The People”. Explaining the same, Shri Modi said, India’s union budget is Rs. 48 lakh crore today as against Rs. 16 lakh crore in 2014. He added that today’s capital expenditure is more than Rs. 11 lakh crore as against Rs. 2.25 lakh crore in 2013-14. He further added that the capital expenditure was being spent on new hospitals, schools, roads, railways, research facilities and many such public infrastructure. The Prime Minister underlined that along with increasing expenditure on the public, the Government was also saving the public’s money. Presenting the facts and figures, Shri Modi said that the leakage that has been stopped by DBT has saved the country Rs. 3.5 lakh crore while Free treatment under Ayushman Bharat Yojana has saved Rs 1.10 lakh crore for the poor. He added that Medicines available at 80% discount at Jan Aushadhi Kendras have saved Rs 30 thousand crore for the citizens while Controlling the prices of stents and knee implants has saved thousands of crores of rupees for the people. Continuing the list, he added the Ujala scheme has saved Rs 20 thousand crore in electricity bills for the people while Diseases have reduced due to Swachh Bharat Mission and this has saved about Rs 50 thousand for every family in the villages. Citing UNICEF report, Shri Modi said that the family which has its own toilet is also saving about Rs 70 thousand and WHO study conducted on 12 crore people whose homes have tap water for the first time have saved more than Rs 80 thousand every year.

Remarking that 10 years ago, nobody had anticipated such big changes in India to take place, Shri Modi said “India’s success inspired us to dream bigger and fulfil it”. He added that this had raised hope and thought that this century will be India’s century. Emphasizing that it was necessary to undertake many efforts to move in this direction, Shri Modi said the Government was working swiftly to do the best in every sector. He remarked that efforts are needed to make our processes such that India’s standard is referred to as ‘world class’ be it in the manufacturing of products or construction, education or entertainment. Shri Modi remarked that Hindustan Times also had a very big role in reiterating this approach in the minds of the people and their 100 years of experience will be very useful in the journey towards a developed India.

Concluding the speech, Shri Modi expressed confidence that India will maintain this pace of development and soon become the third largest economy in the world. He added that Hindustan Times will also witness the new century of rapidly changing India.