Those joining me today for this absolutely wonderful program the honourable Mayor of Lucknow Smt. Sanyukta Bhatia ji, Professor Geeta Gandhi Kelkar, Mrs. Sushmita Basu, the Principals of the various institutions that the City Montessori School runs in and around Lucknow, and all the assembled teachers, students and possibly some parents of the City Montessori School, my compliments to all of you on this wonderful occasion on the occasion of the Teachers’ Day, which we have all gathered here to celebrate.

I was extremely impressed with the quality of presentations that were made today, and at the outset I must compliment all the participants in the various programs. The dances were of very high-quality, the songs were rendered beautifully, very melodiously, and most importantly, what I enjoyed most was the enthusiasm, the smiles on the faces that I could see, it was not a punishment, it was joy to participate in the function. And I think that is what defines a good institution, an institution which prepares you in a very holistic manner, after all, academic excellence would come naturally to an Institute of such high repute.

In fact, you celebrate excellence; that is what CMS stands for – celebrating excellence. But I think that excellence transcends beyond academics. Co-curricular activities, music, culture, our rich tradition that we are all very proud of, the heritage that we have all inherited, I think that development of a student for which all of you teachers are responsible is truly what differentiates the CMS from probably hundreds and thousands of institutions all over the country.

In fact, it’s a matter of pride that you have entered your 60^th year, having been founded in 1959, and as the illustrious founder was just informing me, you have close to 57,000 students and over 4,500 teachers. So, I think in the 60^th year, you will cross the 60,000 mark. And when I saw the results of the program that is taught here, the ICSE and ISC examination, where almost 2000 students have scored more than 90% and I know ICSE and ISC are not easy exams to go by, with 95% marks being scored by almost 10% of the candidates, out of 5,700 odd candidates 577 have scored over 95%. It’s truly a remarkable achievement and I compliment all of you teachers for this.

In fact, yesterday was Janmashtami and tomorrow is Teachers’ Day. So we are very beautifully sandwiched between these two very important days in our life. And why I say that it’s a beautiful sandwich is because while Teachers’ Day is celebrated on the birthday of Dr. Radhakrishnan, probably one of the finest teachers that India has ever produced and a role model for all of us here, but Janmashtami celebrates the birthday of Lord Krishna – possibly one of the finest teachers the world has ever seen – who in the midst of the Mahabharata through the Gita was able to give pearls of wisdom to Arjuna not only in the art of warfare but in the art of living and who taught Arjuna principles and conditions of life, which possibly is the duty of all of us teachers assembled here today.

I think most of us in our childhood and me certainly have been privileged to have some of the best teachers teaching me, grooming me up. I think I have spent more time in school and in college than I have spent at home with my own mother, and therefore, when we are paying respect you will observe that the teacher comes even before God. When you are talking about teachers, on the contextual role that the teacher plays, its “Mata, Pita, Guru, Deivam.” So, Guru comes before the devas and that is the important role that all the teachers in this country, in the world are playing today.

And when you all the teachers presented the prayer for world unity, it actually reflects the mindset that the CMS is teaching to the children of your institution that we are not only here as students to learn the academics, learn the books, learn the curriculum, but we are here to prepare students, prepare children for a world of tomorrow, a world of peace, a world of progress, a world of prosperity. And I am delighted that CMS has chosen this path of growth, but growing in terms of value systems, growing in terms of quality of education, growing in terms of its expanse across the city of Lucknow – not only growing in numbers but growing in terms of the importance that you are playing in the lives of 57,000 odd students.

In fact, very often when one looks at looks back in our own lives, we realise what the teacher has done for all of us. I have been a Minister now for four and half years and I can promise you that every single one of these four and half years there has been some teaching that a teacher in my life gave me, some pearls of wisdom, some knowledge that is being put to use every single moment of my life. Even as I was preparing to come here today, even as I was learning more about your school I was remembering that the teacher at a very early age had inculcated the habit of research and inculcated the habit of preparation before you go for any important function.

When you are looking at your behaviour towards your elders, towards the youngsters, towards your colleagues you realise that it was some teacher in your formative years who taught you etiquette. When you are negotiating with probably a foreign country or the diplomats in your job you realise it was some teacher who taught you the give and take of life, how you are going to be able to be successful in achieving your goals, because it’s only when you have a win-win solution that you can actually conclude transactions, that you can actually get results.

Before I came in here, we had a extended meeting with the government of Uttar Pradesh, the railway officials, the honourable Chief Minister and his colleagues, and we were all discussing various projects that have been carried out in Uttar Pradesh, that are proposed to be carried out in Uttar Pradesh and every single one of that discussions that took place this morning I could possibly relate to something that I learnt either in school or in college or in some management program. And then, of course, learning goes on all through your life, the teacher changes.

You may have a teacher in school, you may have some different set of teachers in college, a different set of teachers who teach you while you are preparing for post graduation for studies beyond that. You have a teacher at home, your mother, your sister, your brother, you have teachers amongst your friends who often guide you, particularly, through important junctures of your life when you need assistance, when you need support and then you have teachers all through your life.

 

I have been privileged to have some of the finest teachers not only in school and college but I had the privilege of being mentored by your representative from Lucknow, somebody who represented Lucknow for five terms as a member of Parliament, somebody who became Prime Minister of this country, an illustrious son of the soil who mentored me when I was a child when I was literally a toddler in arms and whom we remember today with great pride.

And I tell you no sadness, there is no sadness when I remember Atal ji. There is only pride. There is only happiness at a life well led and a life of service to society – selfless service, service which had no boundaries. And I was delighted when I saw in your various books and brochures that Jagdish ji just shared with me that Vajpayee ji had come here in 1974, 55 years ago, also as Prime Minister in 1997. What better privilege can an institution have?

In fact, I will share a small nugget from my childhood, which possibly I haven’t spoken about for many-many years. Vajpayee ji whom I used to call chacha ji used to stay at my home whenever he came to Mumbai and I must say we probably all of six or seven years old, for those of you who interacted with Vajpayee ji you know that in the afternoon he would take a small power nap for half an hour, one hour, whatever he could get, he would always take a small power nap after his meal. And, of course, as young children we don’t sleep in the afternoon, we like to play in the afternoon.

So, I was in the living room playing marbles on the carpet and I was terrible at it. I could never hit a marble even if it was 2 feet away. So, I was playing marbles alone, Atal ji was sleeping in one of the rooms, the rest of the family may have also retired. And I am talking of the early 70s, and this is one of those memories that sticks on in your life and I am relating it to you as teachers, because suddenly he must have got up, he came into the living room and he saw me playing marbles and he saw me missing every time I tried to hit a marble. And I don’t know if I am right when I say that but normally कंचे जब खेलते हैं तो इस ऊँगली से मारते हैं, the second finger, the middle finger, पर अटल जी पहली ऊँगली से whatever this is called, you teachers know better, the forefinger.

अटल जी कंचे में बड़े उस्ताद थे, बड़े माहिर थे तो उन्होंने आकर देखा कि मुझे तो आता-वाता है नहीं कुछ, he had a little larger frame to एकदम he plunged onto the sofa, picked up a marble, put it on his knee, put his thumb on his knee and with the forefinger, 8 feet away, he was able to blast a marble – 8 feet away. और मैं यहाँ पर बाज़ू में मार्बल नहीं मार पा रहा था and this is one of those memories which just sticks on in life that a young boy learning from Mr. Vajpayee कि कंचे कैसे खेलते हैं. That was the multifarious personality that Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji represented.

A man of many parts, he was more a poet than a politician and we just heard the rendition of one of his most famous poetries, a very sensitive human being, a person who cared for every section of society, a world leader, a tall statesman and a man of not only wisdom, but a man of strength, who could do Pokhran and made this country proud and fiercely independent.

Today, I have the privilege of learning from another teacher – Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. Another illustrious leader of this country representing Uttar Pradesh, a person who believes in “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas” which was so beautifully reflected in the various cultural programmes you just now presented here. A person who has lived in poverty and understands the pain of poverty, understands the needs of poor person, a small child born in a poor family has. And, therefore, I was very privileged when he gave me the responsibility of taking power, electricity to every village, to every hamlet, to every home in this country.

And I am happy to share with you, I was just now talking to Maharaj Yogi Adityanath Ji, the honourable Chief Minister, in the last few months that the BJP government, led by him, has been in power here, they have already taken electricity to 45 lakh new electricity users’ homes in Uttar Pradesh, and in the next month, between September and October, another 35 lakh homes will receive free electricity connection under the Saubhagya Yojana of the government.

When we came into government, there were almost 30 crore citizens of India, who were deprived of electricity. Before our first term in office ends in the middle of next year and I am not being arrogant, I am not being presumptuous; I have the confidence in the wisdom of people of India that they will vote wisely next year. Therefore, I am venturing to say that before our first term in office ends next year, we would have ensured that every single willing consumer, every single home in this country, will have an electric connection and no child in the future, no child in the future will ever-ever have to study in a lantern or a kerosene lamp like Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to study in his childhood or my late father had to study under street lamps in the streets of Ambala in his childhood.

I do not think there can be a greater gift that a student can give based on the learnings of life to the citizen of India and Prime Minister Modi in that sense is inspired by Swami Vivekananda, who always said “they only live, who live for others.”

In fact, I think madam Geeta ji was just asking me, why did you decide to go into politics? While, of course, I had made up my mind probably at a very young age, but I think politics is a medium by which you can impact millions of lives for the better, if you choose to. And I think it’s important that good people come into public life, come into politics and I would urge all of you teachers also to build-up good public leaders of tomorrow and an institution like CMS can actually be the breeding ground of the future leaders of India who are willing to serve selflessly, who are not looking at politics as a profession or as a money-making profession or work, but who are willing to look at politics as a medium of service.

I will share one more nugget before I conclude of how Prime Minister Modi is also a teacher in his own way and who keeps guiding all of us colleagues of how we can work better, how we can serve better. I remember I had launched the LED bulbs program in January of 2015, I am sure by now all of you would be aware and if you’re not that means I have been a very bad communicator that I have not been able to spread the message across the country that LED bulbs reduce the energy consumption to almost 15-20% of what the old incandescent bulbs used to consume. So, many of you will remember we had those 60 watt, 90 watt old bulbs, which are now replaced by 7 watt, 9 watt LED bulbs, and as any science teacher here will tell you that there is a straight correlation, if you replace a 60 watt bulb by a 7 watt bulb the electricity consumption is going to be down to probably 12 or 15%.

So, Prime Minister Modi who believes very much in climate change, who believes that we have to leave behind a better planet for the children of tomorrow, probably than the one we inherited, who is very concerned about the environment, who is very concerned about bringing down pollution levels, who is very concerned about greenhouse gases about the impact that we are having on the ozone layer and the problems that the world is facing because of climate change.

Prime Minister Modi is very keen that we have to conserve energy, we have to bring down electricity consumption, and obviously, we also recognise that that brings down the electricity bills of the consumers. So, we embarked on these LED bulbs program with a mission that we will take, we replace every incandescent bulb with an LED bulb in about four years time. We had a target to replace about 77 crore bulbs in four years.

I am happy to share with you, ladies and gentlemen, that it is now only three years and three months, three years and three months since the first bulb was sold in 2015, middle of 2015, and the country has already replaced 118 crore bulbs, old bulbs with LED bulbs. 118 crore of which some 31 crore are sold by one single government company and the rest almost 88 crores by the private sector.

And in this process, because we scaled up this program to such large levels, the cost of these bulbs has come down by 87%. I won’t go into the reasons why they have come down, but you will appreciate that when the system of purchase by the earlier governments and the system of purchase under Prime Minister Modi are significantly different and when you do a thing which is corruption-free, which is completely transparent and honest you can see the results for yourself.

But the learning I wanted to share with you happened sometime in the middle of 2015. I had gone to honourable Prime Minister to report to him about the progress of auction of coal blocks, you will recall that in the previous years there was a big Coalgate scam, because of which the country lost lakhs of crores of rupees. And after Prime Minister Modi took over, he brought the system of a transparent auction by which the natural resources of the country are given away totally transparent, equal opportunity for all to participate in that auction and which is fetching lakhs of crores of rupees of revenue in the next 25-30 years, which will serve the poor of India.

So I had gone to Prime Minister Modi to report the progress of the coal block auctions and after I completed my report card I almost got up to leave and he asked me, ‘Piyush LED bulbs कितने बिक गए हैं अब तक? I was taken aback, मैं तो कोयले के ऑक्शन की नीलामी की रिपोर्ट देने आया था, मुझे क्या मालूम था LED bulbs के बारे में पूछ लेंगे सर। मैंने कहा सर मैं off the cuff मुझे फिगर नहीं मालूम है मैं चेक करके आपको रिपोर्ट भेजता हूँ। He said, ‘बैठो, काम ऐसे नहीं होता है, अगर काम में सफलता पानी है तो काम को मॉनिटर करना पड़ेगा, निगरानी रखनी पड़ेगी कि काम कैसे हो रहा है और जवाब देही बनाना पड़ेगा उन लोगों को जिनको काम करना है – accountability and monitoring.

मैंने तो सोचा था मैंने हावर्ड में भी कोर्स किया है, दुनिया भर में कई सारे यूनिवर्सिटीज़ में लीडरशिप सीखने के लिए गया हूँ, चार्टर्ड एकाउंटेंसी करी, क़ानून पढ़ा, पर यह नहीं ध्यान आया कि इतनी एलीमेंटरी बात मैं चूक गया।

प्रधानमंत्री जी ने एक एग्जाम्पल भी दिया, आपको याद होगा जन धन योजना के तहत हमने देश भर में हर परिवार का अपना खाता हो, बैंक में खाता खुले इसकी बड़ी पहल की थी और चार साढ़े चार महीने के अंदर ही लगभग देश में हर घर तक बैंक का खाता पहुँचाया था जन धन योजना के तहत। तो उन्होंने कहा जन धन में तुम्हें कैसे लगता है इतने सब खाते खुल गए, इतने कम समय में।

मैंने कहा आप हर कैबिनेट मीटिंग में बताते थे कि इतने खुल गए हैं, इतना इसमें प्रगति हुई है, कई मंत्रियों को कहते थे कि आप अपने राज्य में ज़रा ओर देखो, काम को तेज़ गति लाओ। बोले नहीं, कैबिनेट में तो मैं अपनी रिपोर्ट कार्ड तुम्हें देता था। मैं रोज़ सुबह 9 बजे रिव्यू करता था कि कितने खाते देश भर में खुले हैं डिस्ट्रिक्ट-वाइज़| जो-जो डिस्ट्रिक्ट में मुझे कमी लगती थी, यह प्रधानमंत्री जी मुझे सिखा रहे हैं, जो-जो डिस्ट्रिक्स मुझे कमी लगती थी वहाँ के लीड बैंक के मैनेजर से मैं स्वयं बात करता था कि भाई आपके एरिया में थोड़ी और मेहनत करने की ज़रूरत है। उनको प्रोत्साहन देता था कि इस काम को गति लाइए। मॉनिटर करता था कितना प्रगति कहाँ हो गई है उससे लोगों को रिस्पांसिबिलिटी महसूस होती थी, उस रिस्पांसिबिलिटी के तहत काम आगे बढ़ता था और हर हफ़्ते बुधवार को मैं आपको रिपोर्ट कार्ड देता था कैबिनेट में कि मैंने कितना काम आगे बढ़ाया है।

And I tell you यह गुरु मंत्र पिछले तीन वर्षों में तो मेरे लिए बहुत अहम रहा ही है लेकिन मैं समझता हूँ जीवन भर के लिए एक गुरु ने मुझे शिक्षा दी है कि काम को अगर सफल करना है तो किस प्रकार से सफलता को पाया जा सकता है| और मैं समझता हूँ यही काम जो आप सब अपने-अपने क्षेत्र में कर रहे हैं यह जो आपकी लगन हैं, यही जो आपकी मेहनत है, यही जो आपकी निष्ठा है आपके काम के प्रति वह एक सिर्फ़ टीचर की तनख़्वाह से नहीं तोल-मोल की जा सकती है। यह वास्तव में आपका जो पैशन है, आपका जो उत्साह है जिसके रहते दो हज़ार बच्चे पाँच हज़ार में से 90 प्रतिशत से ज़्यादा मार्क्स लेकर आई.सी.एस.ई, आई.एस.सी एग्ज़ाम में पास होते हैं। मैं समझता हूँ वह जो सैटिस्फैक्शन आपको मिलता होगा वही सही गुरु दक्षिणा होगी आप सब के लिए।

और यह जो हज़ारों की तादाद में बच्चे सिटी मॉण्टेसरी स्कूल से पढ़कर निकलते हैं और देश का नाम रोशन करते हैं भारत में, देश में, विदेश में, अन्य-अन्य क्षेत्रों में, कोई चार्टर्ड एकाउंटेंट बनता है, कोई वक़ील बनता है, कोई डॉक्टर बनता है, कोई राजनीतिक नेता बनता है। यह सब अपनी-अपनी फ़ील्ड में अच्छा काम करते हैं लेकिन उस सब की नीव, उस सब की जो फ़ाउंडेशन है वह तो आप सब टीचर्स ही करते हैं वह तो आप की टीचिंग्स में से ही फ़ाउंडेशन बनती है नहीं तो कौन डॉक्टर क्या कर सकता था जब तक उस टीचर ने उसको डॉक्टरी न सिखाई हो, कौन चार्टर्ड एकाउंटेंट अपना काम कर सकता था जब तक टीचर ने उसको कॉस्टिंग और एकाउंटेंसी नहीं सिखाई हो, कौन वक़ील वकालत कर सकता था या जज बन सकता था जब तक कोई टीचर ने उसको क़ानून न सिखाया हो।

मैं आप सबको नमन करता हूँ आज के टीचर्स डे फंक्शन पर।

बहुत-बहुत धन्यवाद।

Janmashtami celebrations – which I had not realised when we fixed up this programme. At the outset, I hope all of you in Mumbai enjoy the Dahi Handi festival in Mumbai. I am missing it this time around. But I do hope you will get some time to go around and enjoy the Dahi Handis being taken down by the enthusiasts from all over Mumbai. And, a very happy Janmashtami to all the participants of the Elara Conference.

You have chosen a very appropriate name, Ashwamedh, I believe. And it’s interesting that Ashwamedh comes from the rituals of ancient India when territories used to be conquered to show clout. The world has changed. I think the economy today determines the clout of a nation, and different countries in the world are today competing with each other to better their economic prospects, economic future and that will be the defining yardstick by which one will see the success or failures of states or countries and governments that run these countries.

Of course, all the statistics are very well known to all the participants of the Elara Conference on reforming India – growth statistics, the quality of growth statistics. There has been a raging debate whether UPA growth numbers, albeit little higher side in some of the years, were better than the growth that the NDA has presented before the nation. To my mind, there is hardly any debate about that and I am one who has been studying the growth model of different countries for several years now. Very clearly, a growth which is on the back of extremely high fiscal deficit and on the back of indiscriminate lending, creating capacities which more often than not never had the demand in the first place certainly do not augur well for a long-term, sustainable growth model.

I personally believe the focused effort to improve the… almost all the microeconomic fundamentals of the Indian economy that Prime Minister Modi and our team has been working on for the last 4 years. The fact that on every parameter, be it fiscal deficit, be it the current account deficit, be it revenue deficit, be it our inflation numbers, be it the fact that over the four-year period interest rates have been down, a short-term uptick in the last two quarters. The jury is out whether it was really called for on a short-term number, or one should have waited to see what the sustainable inflation number would have been. The fact that foreign exchange reserves have been very robust, the fact that the rupee – and this may surprise some of you who believe that the rupee has depreciated in the last three months very rapidly – but I believe the rupee has probably been the most stable in this four years of the Modi government – may not be in terms of the timing, but clearly from the fact that during these 5 years, from 2013 to 2018, you actually saw almost no depreciation of the rupee.

As many of you will recall, in 2013, the rupee-dollar rate was at about 68.8 or thereabouts, in 2013. In September-October, 2013, the Reserve Bank gave an exchange swap and raised some $32-34 billion, which cooled the tempers on the rupee depreciation. The rupee, in fact, depreciated to almost Rs 59-60 to a dollar soon thereafter. And, therefore, if one juxtaposes the 2013 rate with today’s rate, considering the fact that this government has repaid that entire $34 billion, along with interest and the committed exchange rate. We have repaid all of that and after repaying that we are still about a $100 billion higher than the foreign exchange reserves that we had in 2014.

I believe the rupee really has depreciated in that sense only a couple of rupees to a dollar, if you look at the 5-year long haul. And that’s been something which I have been often articulating that the Indian rupee, by and large, has always been a far more steady currency than any other currency in the long run. And sadly, we have these ebbs and sudden falls and sudden increases in the rupee-dollar rate, but if a little more orderly long-term view is taken I don’t think the Indian rupee has depreciated any more than about 3%-3.15% in the long run over any long stretch of time that one could calculate.

But let me give you a couple of insights into the thinking of this government, which will help you realize what we stand for and why this government is different from governments in the past. Reform for us is not only privatization, reform for us is not only opening up FDI to every sector, reform for us is not only what the pink papers believe is reform – for us, reform is what impacts 1.25 billion Indians and has an impact on the life of the poorest of the poor, the man at the bottom of the pyramid.

So very early on, when this government came in, Prime Minister Modi took up the task to get financial inclusion to every citizen of this country, very well realizing that that is going to be the framework on which we can do many other programmes, many other improvements in the life of the poor, particularly, in rural India. And, for that matter, it’s not only about rural India. Many of you will be surprised, in the capital city of Delhi, when we opened up the Jan Dhan accounts we found 25 lakh (2.5 million) families, which didn’t have a bank account, in the capital city of Delhi.

So, opening 320 million Jan Dhan accounts or zero-balance accounts, one of the first projects that this government took up was very critical from the point of view of the many other projects that this government has taken up in the last four years. Electricity – can you imagine 300 million people, so many children, not having an electric connection in their homes, 65 years after independence?

This government took up a systematic approach to first take electricity to every village, then to every hamlet or every small adjunct to the villages and now we are currently in the process of taking electricity to every single willing consumer across the length and breadth of India, such that in the next few months you will have every home in this country getting the benefit of electricity.

And, of course, the quality of electricity, for those of you who are not from Mumbai, because Mumbai always had good quality electricity, but if any of you has lived in Delhi, has lived in other parts of the country – other than Gujarat maybe – you will appreciate that the quality of electricity supply, the pricing of electricity, the fact that we now have a national grid across the length and breadth of India, so the price of electricity on the grid, on the national exchange is broadly evening out and you can get electricity in any part of the country through the exchange, at a reasonable price right round the year.

All of these things are very basic and elementary changes in the lives of the people of India. Sometimes, I see some comments about our cleanliness mission, Swachhta Abhiyan. Some people also say is it the Prime Minister’s job to talk about cleanliness? It is. Because, we sincerely believe that it has huge impact on the health outcomes that we want to see in India. It will have a huge impact in the way we live, the way we work, the way the country thinks and progresses – all of these things resonate with the cleanliness levels of the country.

And to our mind, Swachhta is not just an ordinary programme. It’s a very-very deeply important programme for the various other projects that this government is taking up. And in that, if I may venture to suggest, the idea behind the various programmes that the government has initiated, take Digital India for example, take Make in India for example, take Clean India for example, take the Jan Dhan or the Financial inclusion programme, take the social security schemes where we are trying to ensure that a family in distress has some capital to rebuild its future. The Ayushman Bharat by which we hope to take the 500 million people out of the possible debt trap that comes with health problems and ensure free healthcare for 500 million citizens of India.

The fact that we are trying to double the income of farmers through a much higher MSP, a 150% of cost of production being paid to the farmers as a guaranteed support price, thereby giving a leg-up to the rural economy. And all of us in the finance market well appreciate that any income levels going up in rural India always has an impact on the overall economy. While agriculture may show a 3 or 4% growth, but its impact on the rest of the sectors is huge, because the numbers are huge and because the people involved in agriculture usually tend to spend a larger proportion of their income, on the economy, in the market place.

And, therefore, all of these projects that we have taken up actually are like beads in a necklace, they all have some connection with each other, each one of these programmes would be incomplete without the other. I mean, if we didn’t have electricity across the length and breadth of India, we couldn’t have taken digital literacy everywhere. But with electricity going everywhere, we can ensure that water will become available because pumping will be possible. We can ensure that internet becomes available to children across the length and breadth of India. We can take the road network and the rail network that is being expanded in a big way as an important element of connectivity, which helps people with their mobility, which helps people move from one place to the other and possibly build a better future, a better quality of life for their families.

So, all in all, all these projects actually have an impact on what we are trying to create as the new India, an India where every citizen has a house of his own, shelter on his head, with clean drinking water and electricity in his home, a toilet in his home, access or connectivity through road, to the internet, quality education and healthcare in the vicinity. And unless 1.25 billion Indians are assured of this kind of all-round development, I suspect, just focusing on the numbers alone is not going to change the future of India or the destiny of a billion people.

And, therefore, for us, reforming the nation is about reforming every aspect of national life. It’s a 360-degree approach to the future of every child born in this country. And to my mind, any action delayed in improving the quality of life of these children of this part of India, which has remained deprived or marginalized or has not got the fruits of development for so many decades after independence, any delay in these programmes would be very detrimental to the future of India.

Many of you may be aware, we have almost a 150 districts that had been affected by Maoism, by different forms of terrorist activities in the country. This government is making a focused effort to reach the fruits of development to those interiors, to those people in these districts, so that we can get them into the national mainstream. We are working through a massive programme so that every child gets a roof on his head through the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and different schemes by which the poor can get their own home, by which the middle class is supported to own their own home through concessional interest rates.

Through the Make in India, we are looking to promote domestic manufacturing in newer and newer sectors, we are looking at promoting manufacturing to meet the ever growing needs of a billion people in a cost-effective manner. We are looking at seeing how every woman in this country is ensured a better quality of life, be it her education, be it about her marriage, be it about her cooking habits through the Ujjwala Yojana where we are getting them free gas connections. We are looking at how every woman in this country can take some skill training and become self-sufficient.

And in that sense, it is this 360 degree approach impacting every citizen of India, which is the defining feature of Prime Minister Modi’s government. In different ways, I think the markets have appreciated the various efforts being taken to change the way of thinking, the way of working in this country. I doubt any other government would have had the audacity to introduce GST and successfully introduce at that within one year of introduction. I mean, we have seen the GST as an idea being floated in 2003, when Mr Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. We saw the first contours of GST come out in 2006 or ’07, but for six or seven years, the country was not able to accept the GST in the form that it was proposed. And there are a variety of reasons for that. One of the most important reasons being trust – states did not trust that there interests will be protected, that there revenues will be protected and were always fearsome of their independence, their autonomy and their future.

Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley were able to earn the trust of political parties across the political spectrum. In fact, if I may give you one small example of how this trust was earned, some of you may recall that we had a thing called Central Sales Tax (CST). It used to be 4% many years ago. The earlier government decided to reduce it from 4 to 3, 3 to 2, 2 to 1 and then eliminate it altogether to prepare the nation for a possible GST coming in. And when they reduced from 4 to 3, and then it was to reduce from 3 to 2, 2 to 1, they committed to the states that we will compensate you for the loss of revenue because of the reduction in CST, the Central Sales Tax, for three years, and during these three years we will introduce GST in the country, the Goods and Services Tax.

So, both were to happen concurrently. For the first two or three years, the central government reduced the CST from 4 to 3, 3 to 2. They gave the compensation to the states for two years, and then they said that okay, we had only committed it for three years, now we won’t give you anymore compensation. But as all of you are well aware, if any contract which has two conditions precedent, one says we will compensate you as the CST comes down. The second CP was that we will introduce GST during this period. The government was unable to introduce GST or bring a formulation that was acceptable to the whole country.

So, ideally, the central government became responsible to pay for the loss of CST until such time as GST got introduced. When Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley took charge, and he saw that the states were very wary of the centre, backing out of their commitments and their promises and he saw that this CST compensation was something which was causing angst, which was causing uncertainty that if they could not give us the compensation of CST, despite the fact that GST had not been introduced, then god forbid, going forward, if the GST revenues are down, how do we trust the central government will compensate us?

Mr Jaitley took the responsibility upon himself and the central government paid 37,000 crore rupees, it’s almost $5.5 billion to the states as CST compensation for that earlier years before the GST was finally introduced. And that gave a solid message to the states that here is a leader, here is a government that we can trust, that will live up to its commitments, that has not only shown that it will live up to its own commitments, but is also living up to the commitments of the past which earlier governments did not do.

Of course, there were many other similar steps, which gave confidence, the fact that we improve the GST Council’s formulation, the fact that it worked in unison, in a spirit of consensus. Truly, an example of collaborative and cooperative federalism at its best. And I think efforts like GST to bring one uniform tax in the country, reduce the burden of several taxes and the cascading effect of several taxes on the common man, the fact that a series of measures were taken to take India towards a more honest economy, an economy that gave a premium to honesty, an economy that valued honesty, an economy that respected people who paid their taxes correctly.

That is having significant impact on the collections of taxes that we are now seeing happen. We just the numbers, almost a 70 odd percent increase in filers of income tax. You are seeing GST numbers are robust, so much so that we have been able to reduce tax rates on almost 400 items within the first year of government, almost 400 items, first year of GST. Apart from several items where the service is also we have been able to reduce the taxes.

So several big wins that have happened in the last four years, large amount of transparency brought in in the working of government, almost everything now available on auction, equal opportunity to everybody to participate. Foreign investors don’t have to be worried that coal blocks could get cancelled or spectrum allotment could get cancelled because the process was not transparent and fair. I think those are the things that are now far behind us, behind our memory.

We are looking at an empowered India, an India where every citizen feels empowered, feels truly a beneficiary of the various government schemes where money reaches in directly without intermediaries through the direct benefit transfer, where every Indian can see the fruits of development reach the remotest corners of India to the poor persons’ homes, where today, every Indian can hold his head high anywhere in the world when he says he comes from India, he’s looked upon with respect that you don’t come from a ‘fragile five’ economy, but you come from the world’s fastest growing large economy.

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen for your patient hearing.