PM Modi bats for representation of private sector for economic progress

The Prime Minister also underlined the need for reducing compliance burden and repealing obsolete laws

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday made a strong pitch for further reforms to provide better infrastructure and technology in the farm sector and favoured a role for private enterprises in realising the aim of self-reliant India.

In his opening remarks at the Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting, the prime minister also made a case for reducing the compliance burden on the common man and asked states to set up committees to identify the bottlenecks in development and remove them.

Modi noted that the private sector of the country was coming forward with greater enthusiasm in the development journey of the country.

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“As a government, we have to honour this enthusiasm, the energy of the private sector, and give it as much opportunity in the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign,” he added.

Referring to the easing of regulations on use of geospatial data, the prime minister said had these reforms taken place 10 years ago, companies such as Google and others could have been set up within the country.

“The talent is of our people, but the product is not ours,” Modi said, adding that the liberalisation of geospatial data would help startups and the technology sector.

For the farm sector, the prime minister said that efforts should be made to produce agriculture items like edible oil and reduce their imports.

“About Rs 65,000-75,000 crore is spent on the import of edible oils which should have gone to our farmers. There are several imported products that make their way to our tables. Our farmers have no difficulty in growing these crops, just a little guidance is required,” he said, referring to the need to step up oil seed production.

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The prime minister urged state governments to help farmers grow crops as per the agro-climatic conditions prevailing in the region.

He said the Centre had introduced production-linked incentive schemes for various sectors that provided an excellent opportunity to increase manufacturing in the country.

The states, he added, should take full advantage of this scheme and attract maximum investment in themselves and also reap the benefits of reduced corporate tax.