BJP government headed by Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, with a promise to make ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat (One India, Great India), ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ (With All, Development for all). With over five years in office, the government has been able to bring in reforms in all sectors, push growth, bring down red-tapism, take corruption head on and introduce financial discipline to make India one of the most advanced nations in the world., with the fastest-growing economy.
The major initiatives by the Union Government in various sectors are –
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised a ‘Paardarshi Bharat’ or Transparent India, free of corruption. He took a bold decision to demonetize Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes. The revolutionary step was to uproot the cancer of corruption and black money. It would curtail the shadow economy and crack down on the use of illicit and counterfeit cash to fund illegal activity and terrorism, threatening national security.
Rolled out on July 01, 2017, GST seeks to bring the entire nation in one tax bracket. The ‘One Nation, One Tax-One Nation-Market regime would entail reduction in overall taxes on goods, by an estimated 25-30%. The new tax regime would also lead to ease of doing business and increase in tax revenue collections.
The Union Government has advanced presentation of budget to 1st February to enable the ministries to operationalise all activities from the commencement of the financial year. Merger of General and Railway Budgets has brought Railways to the centre-stage of Government’s Fiscal Policy. The third financial reform is removal of plan and non-plan classification of expenditure to facilitate holistic view of allocations for sectors and ministries.
Merger of five State Bank subsidiaries into State Bank of India to take on global competition. The merger is expected to lead to greater operational efficiency and lower cost of operations.
Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana is a scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 08, 2015 to provide loans upto 10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises. The lending target of the scheme is Rs. 3.0 lakh crores for the Financial Year 2018-19. Of the total loan accounts, 76% are women and more than 50% SCs, STs and OBC.
In a bid to make India self-reliant, Prime Minister Modi had launched an initiative named ‘Make in India’ to make India the hub of manufacturing. It would make ‘Saksham Bharat-Swawalambi Bharat’ or Empowered India, Self-reliant India. With almost 35% of Indian population in the productive age-group and a large pool of skilled workforce, India has the capability to become the manufacturing hub. An added advantage to the industry is that India is a huge market for its products.
Two major initiatives that complement the Make in India programme are Stand up India and Startup India. Stand up India seeks to promote entrepreneurship among scheduled castes and tribes and women. So far 54,733 loans were sanctioned by banks to SCs, STs and women borrowers, as at February 2018.
Startup India movement is intended to promote entrepreneurship among youth and harness their knowledge and skill to contribute to national growth.
Skill building is the basic and foremost step towards the success of Make in India. With this in mind, the government has taken up various initiatives for the upgradation of the skill set, especially of the rural masses and people in the north-eastern region. It would facilitate new avenues of employment and income generating activities through the intervention of science and technology. By the end of 2015-2016, 13,000 training centres were opened across India for training in 375 trades and 19.85 lakh youth were trained, of which almost 50% were girls.
In a bid provide financial support to farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests and diseases, the government had launched Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana on January 13, 2016. This is the biggest financial support till date by the Union Government in crop insurance. So far 4.05 crore farmers were covered under the scheme; 379.06 lakh hectares land insured for a sum of Rs. 1,31,519 crores.
The initiative was launched on January 05, 2015 with an objective to provide people with affordable energy efficient appliances across the country. More than 29.83 crore LED bulbs were distributed in just four years, saving Rs. 15,497 crores per year for the people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana with an initial allocation of Rs. 500 crores on July 25, 2015 in Patna. It seeks to provide round the clock power to rural households and adequate power to agricultural consumers. The government has been able to electrify all the 18,452 villages, which were without electricity in 2014. Today, all of the country’s 5,97,464 census villages have been electrified.
Ayushman Bharat is the world’s largest health insurance initiative. It will provide comprehensive health coverage upto Rs. 5,00,000 per family per year to around 50 crore people.
Mission Indradhanush was launched in 2014 to cover all those children who have been partially vaccinated or not vaccinated during routine immunization rounds. The objective of Mission Indradhanush is to increase full immunization coverage in India to at least 90% children by 2020. It has completed four phases covering 528 districts, wherein 3.15 crore children were vaccinated and 80.63 lakh pregnant females immunized.
In order to provide affordable and quality healthcare for all, the government has brought 1054 essential medicines, including lifesaving drugs, under price control regime after May 2014, giving the consumer total benefit of more than Rs. 10,000 crores.
Besides, the government also has brought Cardiac Stents and Knee Implants under price cap.
The decision has brought the cost of Stents to the tune of 85% and Knee Implants by 69%, providing relief to a large number people.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana, more than 3,000 Janaushadi outlets have been opened to ensure availability of quality medicines at affordable prices to all. Apart from Janaushadhi Stores, the government has also opened 83 Amrit stores, which provide drugs for cancer and cardio-vascular diseases with cardiac implants at a 60 to 90 per cent discount on prevailing market rates. So far 17.97 lakh patients have been benefitted from Amrit outlets, with a total saving to the tune of Rs. 103.55 crores to patients.
Under the Prime Minister’s Dialysis Programme, support is being provided to all states for provision of free dialysis services for poor. Dialysis services will be started in all district hospitals, with six machines, which will be extended upto 10 machines per facility. So far, 497 Dialysis Units have been made operational and around 2.5 lakh patients have availed services with nearly 25 lakh dialysis sessions held so far.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his maiden address at the UN General Assembly made an impassioned plea to adopt International Yoga Day. Recognising the universal appeal of Yoga, the United Nations proclaimed the June 21 as International Yoga Day by a resolution. It aims to raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practicing Yoga. A year later, UNESCO inscribed Yoga on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the first International Yoga Day celebrations in New Delhi on June 21, 2015.
In a bid to arrest the trend of decline in the Child Sex Ratio (CSR), Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative, with an initial funding of Rs. 100 crores.
This is a joint initiative of Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource Development. Its objectives are prevention of gender biased sex selective elimination, ensure survival and protection of the girl child and ensure education of girl child. It also promotes compulsory registration of pregnancies and institutional deliveries It is now being implemented in 161 districts across the country, which have low Child Sex Ratio at Birth. The scheme will progressively be extended to all districts of the country.
The Union Cabinet launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana on May 01, 2016, which envisages of smoke free rural India. It aims to benefit five crore families especially women living below poverty line by providing free LPG connections by 2019. It will help reduce health disorders, air pollution and deforestation. The Cabinet has approved Rs. 8,000.00 crores for the next three years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the scheme in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh on May 01, 2016. So far 3.8 crore LPG connections were provided to BPL households. The target for the scheme has been raised to provide LPG connections to 8 crore women.
Under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign, special bank accounts will be opened to every girl child to meet the expenses of education and marriage. The account provides small affordable deposits at the highest rate of interest. More than 1.26 crore accounts for the girl child were opened and around Rs. 20,000 crore deposited so far.
The Union Government amended the Maternity Benefit Act in March 2017 to provide 26 weeks’ paid maternity leave mandatory for women working in any organisation, one of the highest durations in the world. This will enable the mother to take care of the new born child and provide exclusive breast feeding for the first six months.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the thanksgiving speech, after his election from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, vowed to clean up the River Ganges. A year later, the Union Government launched a programme to clean up Ganga. The Union Cabinet approved a budget outlay of Rs. 20,000/- crore for the ambitious Ganga rejuvenation programme – Namami Gange. Its twin objectives are effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.
India has leapfrogged in technology, especially spacefaring. India is the first nation in the world to successfully reach Mars orbit in the first attempt, when the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) was launched on November 05, 2013,
On February 15, 2017, Indian again scripted history with the successful launch of a record number of 104 Satellites by ISRO in a single mission. Of these, 96 co-passenger satellites were from USA.
On January 12, 2018 India successfully launched the 100th satellite – Cartosat 2 series for weather observation.
With the acquisition of forth fastest supercomputer in the world, weather and climate research in India has improved tremendously. India is the fourth country in the club of supercomputers of such capacity.
Khelo India marks a watershed moment in the history of India sports, as it aims at mainstreaming sports as a tool for individual development, community development, economic development and national development. The Union Government has approved funds to the tune of Rs. 1,756 crores for the period 2017-2020. It has a component to identify and assist medal probable for 2020 Olympics. The first Khelo India school games was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 31st January, 2018, in which 3,507 players from 29 states and 7 union territories participated.
A sports talent search portal was launched to provide a transparent platform for talented youth to share their achievements. It also gives a boost to budding sportspersons.
The first-ever training centre with world-class facilities was dedicated for Para Athletes at Gandhinagar, Gujarat on February 05, 2017.