Prime Minister Narendra Modi touted his government's success in promoting technology in the welfare delivery and payments ecosystem and the policy push towards domestic manufacturing. He said the government follows a "policy-driven approach" where "grey areas" are minimised and policies are "black and white" to ensure there is no discrimination in the delivery of services and 100% saturation of welfare schemes.
"We stressed the 100% saturation of the schemes; they must reach the beneficiaries. When it is 100%, then people know that they are going to get it; there will be no place for corruption," he said in an interview with news agency IANS.
"Saturation guarantees social justice and secularism. Our attempt was also to use maximum technology," he said, highlighting the direct-benefit transfer model.
Modi On Local Manufacturing
Modi criticised those questioning his government's flagship economic programmes like Make In India, saying the self-reliant and indigenization goals are being mislabeled as anti-globalisation.
"If someone in America says 'Buy American', they are proud of it, but when Modi says 'Vocal for Local', then people feel that it is against globalisation. So this trend of misleading people continues," he said.
"India has skilled manpower. The youth should get employment, the wealth of my country should not go out, there should be value addition to the natural resources and agriculture and they should capture the global market," he added.
Modi On UPI, Digital India
Modi stressed the government's commitment to the 'Digital India' initiative, highlighting the success of instant payment systems like UPI and India's booming fintech space.
"The 21st century is a technology-driven century. We should be looking at futuristic things. Today, we can send money to 11 crore farmers within 30 seconds. Now UPI is so user-friendly because the talented youth in our country build (fintech) products that common men can use," he said.
"UPI has played a huge role in the world of fintech. Many countries are ready to connect with UPI. India is now leading in fintech. I want to promote technology," he said.
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