by Vijaylakshmi
Addressing the newly elected members of the 18th Lok Sabha today in parliament, Droupadi Murmu, President of India said that her government will continue on the path of reforms to transform the economy by giving equal importance to all three important pillars of the economy – Agriculture, Manufacturing and Services sectors.
Talking about the services sector and its importance in achieving growth targets, the President said that the country has emerged as a leader in the services sector – IT, tourism, health and wellness and these sub-sectors of the services industry are helping in creating new employment as well as self-employment to a large section of the population.
She said that schemes like PLI and Ease of Doing Business are helping in attracting new investments in all sectors and helping in generating employment and that the country is growing at an average rate of 8 percent and India today contributes about 15 percent of the world’s growth.
On the travel and connectivity front, she said that the country has emerged as the third largest domestic aviation market in the world with domestic airline routes increasing from 209 in 2014 to 605 in 2024. Tier 2 and 3 cities are also benefiting from this expansion in air travel, she said in her address.
Metro rail facilities have reached 21 cities in the country in the last 10 years, she informed. There has been unprecedented investment in the last 10 years, especially in smaller cities and towns. Development of infrastructure has emerged as the new picture of changing India in this direction.
“In 10 years, my government has built more than 3 lakh 80 thousand kilometers of roads in villages under the PM Rural Road Scheme. Today a network of national highways and expressways is being laid in India. The pace of construction of national highways has also more than doubled,” she said.
The construction work of the high-speed rail ecosystem between Ahmedabad-Mumbai is also progressing rapidly. She said that the government will now start feasibility studies for Bullet Train corridors in North, South and East India. She said that her government is committed to make Indian cities best places to live in the world by promoting green energy and green mobility. She said that India is much ahead in achieving the net zero emissions targets.
