Stressing the need to accelerate Make in India initiatives, Union Minister of India Shri. Piyush Goyal underlined the need of fostering industry and manufacturing in India, claiming that doing so will increase employment and improve the quality of life for our people.
The Minister in his address at the All India Vaishya Federation (AIYF) in Hyderabad emphaised the need to secure the basic necessities of women, especially that of menstrual hygiene. Expressing concern over girl children dropping out of schools on attaining puberty, the Minister stressed that the government was providing sanitary napkins at very low prices. He called for more awareness programs to educate women about various aspects of menstrual hygiene to protect and empower them. The Minister asked AIVF to strive to ensure that in the next one year every single woman in the nation had awareness and access to sanitary pads.
The Minister stressed that India was ready to take decisive steps towards becoming a developed nation, a vishwaguru. He expressed confidence that India’s huge youth population had the capability to drive this quest forward. “India is the sole bright spot in the world today. The world is looking towards India with great hope”, he added. He noted that developed nations were now aspiring to enter into FTAs with India and said that the fastest FTA in the world was concluded between India and UAE in just 88 days. He added that the rest of the GCC nations were also gearing up to sign FTAs with India.
Shri Goyal pointed out that in the last 30 years, India’s GDP had grown by 11.8 times. He reminisced that there was a time when a large section of the population was focussed upon securing the very basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter. He observed that the situation has improved tremendously now due to the government’s extensive focus on structural reforms that make sure that people were freed from the constant struggle for the necessities of life.
Make in India: Minister Piyush Goyal boast the success of India safe sanitation milestones and reforms
The minister went on to say that the reform that was closest to his heart was the governments success in building over 12 crore toilets, taking safe sanitation, a very basic necessity, to every household in the nation. “It was not just a matter of toilets but that of dignity and self-respect, especially for our women,” he stressed.
“The government had ensured food security to nearly 80 crore citizens by supplying food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and additional 5 kilo food grains per person per month. He said that it should be a matter of gratification to tax payers that their money was being used well to help those in real need. 50 Crore people are now being given free, quality healthcare, clean drinking water is now taken to every household through taps under the Jal Jivan Mission, Minister noted.
He referred to all these initiatives as the foundational work to ensure that our population, especially our youth are freed up to take up activities that spearhead growth and development, thereby helping us reap our incredible demographic dividend. “Our youth is now free from struggles for necessities and is highly aspirational. They aspire to become innovators and entrepreneurs and drive growth”, he added.
Shri. Piyush Goyal agreed with PM Modi when he urged tourists and travellers to support and encourage the skilled artisans, craftsmen, and business owners in our country by spending at least 5% of their travel budget on locally created goods.
