If victorious, PM Modi’s 100-day action plan includes Rs 10K crore roadmap for new cities

The plans include setting up about 10 new cities to expand manufacturing and services sectors while also easing population congestion, sources said.

By Shruti Srivastava and Siddhartha Singh

Government officials are discussing proposals to subsidize interest on home loans, create new urban centres and reduce bankruptcy delays as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 100-day agenda if he returns to office, people familiar with the matter said.

The plans include setting up about 10 new cities to expand manufacturing and services sectors while also easing population congestion, the officials said, asking not to be identified as the talks are private. The project will need initial funding of about Rs 10,000 crore ($1.2 billion), the people said.

The proposals expand on the goals outlined in the ruling party’s election manifesto released this week, which pledged to boost manufacturing and improve living conditions in India’s cities. Modi said at the launch of the manifesto he’d instructed officials to begin work on programs to be implemented in his first 100 days in office, showing his confidence in returning to office for a third consecutive term in elections that kick off on Friday.

Officials are also discussing plans for a new interest subsidy scheme on loans for affordable homes, which was first announced by Modi last year, the people said. The subsidy is aimed at driving growth in the real estate sector.

Officials said some of the proposals are likely to be a part of the budget to be released by the new government once it takes office.

Some of the other recommendations include the following, the people said:

• Amending the insolvency and bankruptcy law to reduce delays and maximize returns from liquidated assets. Increasing the strength of the bankruptcy tribunal for faster disposal of cases

• Implementing rules for facilitating Indian companies to list shares directly on international exchanges in Gujarat’s financial hub. While the rules were notified earlier this year the process for listing is still awaited

• Concluding free trade agreements with the UK and Oman

• Developing an industry for Indian-made commercial aircraft by 2035

• Preparing a blueprint for developing India’s own credit ratings company

• Pushing states for more reforms on vehicular pollution and make municipal corporations financially self-sufficient

Modi’s economic vision is to make India a developed country by 2047, an ambitious goal that economists say would be difficult to achieve without consistent high growth rates of about 8 per cent.

A panel of officials made a presentation to Modi last month, in which they provided forecasts to 2047, the people said. The projections include an increase in the size of the economy to more than $30 trillion from $3.5 trillion currently, and a seven-fold jump in per capita income to $18,000 a year, one of the people said.