From Achhe Din To New India: Modi Builds A New Narrative For 2019
Prime Minister Modi ropes in CEOs to push ‘New India’ vision
Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 with the promise of “achhe din”. With two years to go before his government is up for re-election, he already has a new slogan in place - New India.
In his Independence Day speech this year, Modi referred to ‘New India’ no less than seven times. In the speech he described New India as a '”secure, prosperous, strong nation”, a nation which has “equal opportunity for all”, where “modern science and technology plays an important role” and a “democracy where people are not driven by the system, rather the system is drven by the people”.
He set 2022 as the deadline to realise the idea of ‘New India’, the same year India turns 75.
Two days later the Prime Minister sat down with entrepreneurs to discuss what could be done over the next 5 years to achieve this ‘New India’.
Starting Monday, the government will engage with over 200 young chief executive officers over two days to talk about how business can contribute to this vision. Business leaders will discuss poverty elimination, skilled workforce and gender parity in these sessions titled ‘Champions of Change’.
There are other ambitious goals as well. Doubling farmer Incomes and electrifying all households by 2022, according to Minister of Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has also set his 2022 targets. These include resolving the Kashmir Issue and ending the “menace of terrorism, naxalism and left wing extremism”.
New India is a “repackaged program” said AK Bhattacharya, editor of the Business Standard newspaper in an interview with BloombergQuint. It’s also key to note that the ‘New India’ promise is aimed to deliver in 2022, even though the Modi Government’s term ends in 2019, he added.