At least social media people don’t like speeches, so let’s interact with each other, I want to hear from you what we can do better for the youth, for all of you, how we can work together to take the work of this government up to the last man into the people, how we can make our presence felt more on social media. So, I have really come to listen to you, not the other way round.
There is a presentation that we have made, which after I go away they are going to share with you. So, they will share the presentation and then email it to you also. So, that will be a nice source document for you, both for talking about it, for tweeting about it, for writing Facebook posts or spreading the word about what the government has done. Of course, the Narendra Modi app also gives us a lot of info graphics and details about what has happened in different areas. But I will just tell you, when we sat down to assess 3 years of performance of this government so we take inputs from all the Ministers, different departments; I promise you, I say it on record that the total number of issues that this government has addressed or has worked on became a few thousand. And when I was sitting to asses what to do with that, every issue looked important because somewhere or the other it was impacting the people of India.
And, I think this must be the first time in India’s history that in 3 years, a government has done so many projects that it has touched the life of each and every citizen of India and the life of each and every person of Indian origin, he may by anywhere in the world. If some of you look up history, no government, no government in independent India has ever had a mid-term at the end of three years after the election, popularity which is more than the popularity in the original election. It has never happened. Normally, there is anti-incumbency, there is a fatigue factor. So, after 2 years, 3 years then all the criticism starts, यह नहीं हुआ वह नहीं हुआ. Those typical problems. This is one government where Prime Minister Modi’s popularity has gone up after 3 years. It’s actually very shocking even for a person like Rajdeep Sardesai.
And every poll, it’s not only the India Today poll. I don’t know if you saw that Round Table that India Today had where Rajdeep and I also had a little bit of spat. But every poll in Republic, your own, almost a Bangalore start-up now, support by Bangaloreans, the Republic Channel. That has also come out with ratings which are completely showing popularity of Prime Minister is soaring across the country. So, that was thousand we started saying what to do, accha another problem is, of course, in the process my own 4 Ministries are totally out of the reckoning so because to accommodate everybody’s things whatever work we have done is gone out. So, you will find the whole presentation has, for example, no mention that it is a power surplus and coal surplus country, first time in 70 years of independent India. It has no mention of the LED programme at all.
In fact, Jayant Singhji asked me अरे LED का तो लिखा ही नहीं है presentation में, I said क्योंकि मैं बना रहा था तो सब लोग आलोचना करते हैं कि तुम अपना ही काम दिखा रहे हो तो my instructions were कि मेरे Ministry का सब काम निकाल दो उसमें से, and still every Minister is happy कि मेरा यह नहीं लिखा, वह नहीं लिखा, वह नहीं लिखा | And very rightly so because so much has happened. And when I was making the presentation with Amit Shahji, and the top 4-5 Ministers – Arunji, Rajnathji, Sushmaji, Venkaiahji before the press, before intellectuals and all on 27-28th May, first time I made the presentation there were 240 slides. So, everybody got fatigued, I lost my throat. And in the afternoon I had done it at 12 o’clock, I had to do it again at 6 o’clock, 7 o’clock in the evening. So then everybody got flustered we will have to reduce it, so in the whole day we sat we reduced it. But, after reduction also, it became 100 slides and when I spoke in the evening second time, of course, by the night my throat had collapsed. As it is I have a lousy, croaky throat. But my, second time also it didn’t take much less time, morning it took one and a half hour, evening it took 1 hour 20 minutes. Because, naturally, when you are talking of one thing, mind में आता है अच्छा इसके साथ यह भी हुआ, यह भी हुआ, यह भी हुआ |
So I have a thousand things jumbled up in my mind or 2000 things jumbled up. And I also feel embarrassed that I have forgotten or not talked about how we have attacked left-wing extremism in the whole context. I have not talked about the fact that we have killed twice the number of terrorists in 3 years than the earlier 3 years. And Rajnathji is listening over there, afterwards, he will say मेरा नहीं बोला कुछ भी | You come to any Minister, सुषमाजी के 50 चीज़ें दिमाग में आ रहीं थी while I was talking and she is sitting right there.
What I am trying to tell you is, this is a government you cannot truly be proud of without being boastful, we don’t have to be boastful, we have to be humble. Because, ultimately, development is a journey. The day we feel we have done enough or we have achieved our goals is the last day for all of us. Actually, that day we will be thrown out of the government also. In a way, if you recall 2004, while that India Shining boomeranged because people started saying, oh, they are feeling that they have done their job, which was not so. We were only trying to express that things have changed significantly from what it was in 1998 when Vajpayeeji became Prime Minster. But, unfortunately, we got misunderstood and the people said, oh, this means they have done their job, this is the best that they can do.
For us, development is a journey, this 3 years is one padaav, as they say one more step up. But, we have a lot to do and we have a lot to do together; you and me and all have to work together, in which, as Venkaiahji rightly says Reform to Transform, and if you want to actually Transform you have to Perform. But all three, Perform, Reform and Transform are useless unless you Inform. And that is where all of us can play a huge role.
Knowledge is power, power is not knowledge. Just being in power doesn’t give us any great knowledge or information or doesn’t give us love and affection of the people. But, if we transfer that knowledge to people, then you, I don’t mean you get power in the sense you win the next election only, but actually, on the people there is an influence and that influence gives you the power on those people. Then they feel that yes, this is a government that is sensitive to the poor, to the farmers, to women, to youth, to socially and marginally deprived sections of society, this is truly a government that wants to serve the poorest of the poor, which is what Deendayal Upadhyayji taught us.
So, with that objective we have again from that 100 slides, we have done a further cutting down, and I think a 42-slide presentation which they will show you after I go, will give a lot of information. Read it at home, study it. If you have questions write to us or combine all those questions and then send a composite query to us, we can respond to that, we can help you with more power, more information.
But, truly, this is a government that’s sensitive to your feedback, and it’s a government that’s committed. I mean I have taken 3 days off, I had my son’s graduation so I got 3 days off. Prime Minister has not taken 1 day off! And on every item you will see, the scale at which we have worked. I was talking in an earlier session – digital – since we are from the digital world, fibre optic connectivity, up to 2014, 358 kms fibre optic was laid. 3 years later – 2,02,000 kms. 358 to 2,02,000 kms!
LED bulbs – 6 lakh were sold in 2013-14. In the last two years, only one government company – 24 crores, 6 lakh to, 24 को आप दो में divide भी कर दो तो 12 crores, 6 lakh – 12 crore! That’s the way! You remember Prime Minister’s thing – Speed, Skill and Scale – that is what we are truly trying to do. You are all a part of this journey. We couldn’t have done this without your support, because you all have kept the flag flying high. When somebody like an, and actually on record, I can say an idiot, like that Partha Chatterjee. Actually, he should be called Pakha Chatterjee, a Pak agent almost. When people like them make such blasphemous statements that he has done, and then today he reiterates that I stand by what I said. I think that’s when our role comes in to educate the people about such anti-national elements and how this government is working to protect the integrity and unity of this country, to protect the borders of this country, to protect the lives of our people. And how the sacrifice of each one of these jawans or each one of our armed forces should not go to waste.
So, that’s the broad prospective. Now I would like to hear from all of you.
We have started solar park in ……….. district, I would…………. which generates 2000 MW of energy. So, I come from ……….. where we have no water, ……………………… so why can’t you start a solar park in ………….?
I would love to do that. But, just for everybody’s information, solar parks have to be initiated by the state government. From the centre, I cannot directly come and set up a park, because land has to be made available by government. They have to buy the power into the grid and supply to the people. So, I will talk to the local government, if you write me a mail, MNRE Ministry will talk to them and if they can make available land I would love to do it. That’s a great idea.
There’s a question about IT companies losing jobs. I have personally talked to all the top IT people – NASSCOM, to TCS and all. What they tell me is, certainly, there are technological changes happening in the industry and that’s a routine. They said it happened in 2001-02, it happened it 2008, it happened in 2012. They said this is a typical churn that happens in the industry, but it has only slowed down hiring, not, degrowth is not there, not that people are being given pink slips and told to leave.
TCS – Chandrashekhar, the Chief of the TATA Group now, he told me, on the contrary last year, I hired 56,000 people in TCS alone, about 30,000 people there was a natural attrition. Some people retired, some go for other jobs. So, I said yeah, you may have even sacked some people for performance. He said no, in TATAs, we don’t even sack anybody for non-performance. So, net-net there is still an addition of 26,000. NASSCOM has come out with that 1.5 to 2 lakh people will be hired in the current year, and last year 1 lakh 70 thousand or 1 lakh 50 thousand were hired. Recently, there was a NASSCOM statement, it may be available on the website also.
Wipro has recently spoken about net hiring. So, I think this is a falsehood, but, what I can suggest is, since we are all from this field. Let’s do an actual test check. Let some of us do a on-the-ground survey, and if we find the situation is really that people are losing jobs, let us together come up with some ideas. I have just now been to CPRI. There I said, let’s start a skill development centre, so you all find out people like that, if you find that there is a serious problem like that, let’s do a retraining of all these people. Since they are skilled in IT that means they at least have some good brains 100%. We can re-skill them to become good lab assistants, researchers, those type of things. Because, these days all testing is done by computer equipment only. So, very good idea, we can utilize their experience by training them in other fields.
But, I would urge all of you, make small groups and let’s do a survey वह तो बैंगलोर में मालूम पड़ जायेगा real truth क्या है | Bangalore represents India in the IT field, all over the world. So, will you take this up? And, let’s try and get some genuine on-the-ground feedback, keep it confidential also, don’t start tweeting about it.
Q: Sir, my name is …….. Karnataka State Farmer’s Solar Association working President, the Karnataka has given 4000 PPAs to the farmers, they are not interested in doing the solar, they have created the PPAs to the farmers but they are not giving commission. So many people are on the way ……….. they invested 4 crores, 5 crores or they withdrawn from the PPA, some of the persons gone to the high court from writ petition but court has given order to the state government to take revision on this.
Ans: Send me a mail on this, this is a serious issue. If there was a scheme and under that scheme the people have invested then they are bound to give PPA.
Already, I have given mail to your office and I got…… (inaudible)…
Send it to me… if you have a copy give it to me just now.
Because, Rs 7.36 is too high. But there is no 50 lakh rupee subsidy per MW, who told you that?
Q: Sir, the …… has notified.
Ans: No, only for rooftop I think there is some subsidy, but this is not rooftop. No my friend, I think if there is some problem that had been brought to my attention that some people have set up not on rooftop but just made a small height and set up a solar panel, that cannot qualify as rooftop. Anyway, we will discuss that separately, this is not a farming meeting.
Quality of the engineers coming out of universities are decreasing, very good point. That’s also a good idea, to use these engineers to train the fresh engineers. It’s a similar to the first.
There is huge gap between the academics and the industry sir, what is the….
It is actually the quality of our education has deteriorated, particularly, with these mushrooming private sector institutes. I will also talk to Prakash ji, we must put some quality standards on these private institutes also. It’s a good idea.
You know, this waste management, it’s a good point whoever has raised it. We are really keen that waste gets processed into fertilizer, compost, methane gas, and if not anything else then electricity. Electricity, of course, is surplus in this country, so ideally we wanted to go in for gas. Recently, in Chennai, you know, they have developed for biodegradable waste, that’s food waste and all that, to convert that into methane gas. I had gone in….. with IIT Chennai, we are trying that all the cities, should start implementing that for which we have to give some land or some available resource and a bottling plant on which this methane can be bottled.
Mahindra has done this research and they are giving the technology free of charge to everybody, we are not charging any license fee, nothing, open source for all. So, there’s really something, we need to set up nearly 5000 of these, but we are still working with Urban Development Ministry to see how this can be promoted in a big way as a combination. Because, gas is in short supply in India, so it’s a good idea we have to work on that.
Beef ban, I think more is talked about it than required also. Yes, there is already a system, gobar being converted to methane. And, by the way, if we don’t do that, that gobar lying on the ground releases methane in the air. And for climate change that is the most dangerous thing, it is worse than carbon dioxide from the thermal power plants, the methane that is released from gobar. So, if we can actually collect all this gobar and make methane gas out of it and bottle it, it’s a very efficient utilization of cow dung and it also gives an income to the farmers. So, I am soon going to be come out with a scheme for all gaushalas, so, you all also start checking where where we have gaushalas in Karnataka. So, if you want I can launch it from Karnataka, I was thinking of UP, but I will launch it from Karnataka.
If you come up with a database how many gaushalas have more than 1000 cows, how many have between 500-1000, how many have between 250-500. यह आप भी कर सकते हैं, farmers भी सब इनको बहुत फायदा होगा | Then they can collect the cow dung at least, and also in the other neighbouring cows. A price can be put to that also, and that methane we can have a small bottling plant and use that methane.
Laxmiji is talking about digitization of land records. I frankly don’t have the latest data on that, I will have to check it out. It’s something I don’t know on top of my head, I don’t have an answer to it. Who is laxmiji?
Modi’s new nuclear MoU with Russia, what is the power addition! Directly, India has about 6,700 MW of nuclear power already in operation, projects which are under implementation will add another 6,700. So, we will have about 13,500 MW of nuclear. 7000 MW in two weeks back or three weeks back the cabinet has approved out of domestically produced power plant, nuclear power plant, which is a great thing of pride. Now, India is producing nuclear facilities in India so then we will become about 20,000. Kudankulam 2 phases that have just been approved will add about 2000 more.
We have just come out with a new health policy. We are open that in the next two years we will be able to propagate that and provide for universal healthcare for everybody in the country. But, again healthcare is an area where you all have some ideas. Like, I remember going to Devi Shetty’s Narayana Hrudayalaya, I at least find it wonderful, if anybody has any other opinion please don’t dampen my own spirit, but I found that to be quite good. He has almost used the factory model to run the hospital. So, in one floor some 400 beds were there with all children who needed heart operation, I was really impressed to see that. Then he brought down the cost of everything. So, if an ECG has to be taken, you go to a private hospital it costs Rs 100. He used simple paper, he used it 24 hours in his machine and he was able to bring to down to Rs 4-5 for an ECG.
Now, these are the ideas that all of you have to share with us. We also forget we get busy in too many things. But, if these ideas keep coming then we can see how we can use it pan-India to be able to serve the people better.
This is an election in Karnataka and we want that quick dose for, like you know,
Give me 10 quick-fix items that you all want, then I will work on that. The reservation is going to continue, if anybody doesn’t like that, come and meet me in Delhi we will discuss it separately or next time I come to Bangalore I will spend more time. Today, these guys have been making me run since 8 o’clock in the morning, 7.30 sorry, we left at 7.30 for an 8.15 programme, it was far away. But, most enjoyable day, particularly going back to the karyakarta’s homes, having a sumptuous meal, the warmth, love and affection I got, I felt like a youth once again. When I used to be young, your age, my mother used to make Layee it’s called in Hindi, I don’t know what you call it here. Glu.. we could not afford market Glu, Jansangh and BJP were poor parties, leepa, yeah. So, we used to make layee, in hindi it’s called Layee. Mummy used to make it in ……, so we used to carry that and go and stick posters everywhere, go to each others homes. There was so much bonhomie, love and affection. Now we only meet in party karyalays and five star hotels unfortunately. They have getting back to the old way of working, the karyakartas.
Actions on setting up Lokpal – there is a little technicality about, the leader of opposition is a member of the lokpal appointment committee. I think that’s getting sorted out.
Q: Sir, I have two questions, sir, post demonetization we have a lot of money in banks, the credit delivery mechanism is still slow, especially for small scale industry some innovative, method of delivery of credit has to be revised. That’s what we want it to be done very urgently.
Ans: See, we have made credit a function of the bank and the banker, as politicians and government we have decided not to interfere in the working of banks. Otherwise, political interference has killed the …., see the large number of NPAs and all. But, I agree with you, small industry, I have run a SSI myself. As an entrepreneur, I started a factory when I was 17 years old and I understand your pain. I have gone and actually sat in front of managers, against clearing यह चेक पास कर दो, छोटा…. दे दो जिससे आज का दिन चल जायेगा.
I have done all of that, but if you can come with some mechanisms, or a time-bound mechanism in which bankers take the decision. But, creditworthiness will be a decision of the bank, we cannot micro-manage that, but if you have ideas please send it to us.
Second thing sir, the congress is attacking us, mainly on job creation. And they are coming out with only the figures which are there in the media and from RBI and other sources. Our defence is not very clear on those lines, I feel the work we have done by taking from 2 kms to 28 kms in road building and Mudra yojana, we have done other things. That has to be publicised more in the….
I agree with you, which is what we are all here for. Unless, we start talking. See, I will explain the jobs in a brief way. Technologies worldwide have changed. The old days of top-down approach is over, today, if you set up a 20,000 crore rupee steel plant it will create 5000 jobs. Earlier, the thinking was that we have trickle down effect, but it never trickled down, it remained at the top. Our approach is to make you all job creators, rather than only job seekers. Entrepreneurs, the Mudra yojana gave 3 lakh crores to 7 crore applicants and at average of 40-50,000 rupees. The new India is not going to be about government jobs and about big factories, it is going to be about technologies. And I think we will all have to work on technology creation. We will all have to work with new ideas.
That young boy Bhavish, started Ola, it’s a billion and half dollar company, 5 lakh people have got employment out of that. Now, these are all stories which are not captured by the data so I have told them now they are reworking this whole data and the way this data is corrected.
I am sorry this has been a little bit of a rush affair, I got two memorandums, questions I saw.
I have a request; please see the presentation before you go away. It should not happen that I go away and half of you also go away. We have made it with great care, it’s very informative and it will help you when we are giving information to all the people, point 1. Point 2 – let us, as he said there is election in 6-8 months, let’s now get really active on social media. He has a very ambitious plan, 100 IT cell karyakartas in every assembly constituency. Now that’s wonderful, that means you are talking of 28,000 karyakartas from IT cell and Karnataka can do it. And if you do it then Amit Shahji will make the whole country do it. And if you really get me 28,000 such karyakartas, 100 in each constituency, I will request Amit Shahji when he comes here to have a session with all 25,000…….
Ends.
