Strength of Team India, as shown in Operation Sindoor, will enable country to achieve Viksit Bharat: PM Modi at NITI Aayog meeting

New Delhi [India], May 25 (ANI): Referring to people’s full support for Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the country needs the same approach to achieve 'Viksit Bharat' and the strength of Team India during the operation will also enable the country transform into a developed country.

PM Modi made the remarks at the Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog, its Chief Executive Officer BVR Subrahmanyam told the media.

Subrahmanyam said PM Modi also stated that strength of Team India during Operation Sindoor has to be converted into social strength and Viksit Bharat mission has to be a people’s movement.

“The PM said that we need the same approach that we have had in supporting Operation Sindoor to actually go and achieve 'Viksit Bharat'. The strength of Team India, as shown in Operation Sindoor, is also going to be the same feature which will enable India to achieve 'Viksit Bharat'. He also said Operation Sindoor is not just a show of army's strength. It has to be converted to social strength because society came out and supported our action. Similarly, 'Viksit Bharat' is not the idea of a chief minister or an individual or anybody in the system; it has to get converted into a people's movement,” Subrahmanyam said.  

“There was complete absolute unanimity on Operation Sindoor and regret and anger over what happened in Pahalgam. I think that was a common theme, and there was complete expression of solidarity. Everybody commended the role and the valour of the defence forces and the leadership by the Prime Minister, which led to the success, and the way the Prime Minister's leadership and the defence forces protected national security. And so I think that was something that was uniform, irrespective of any particular ideological or party orientation...This was one of the most positive meetings that one could have had, considering a very diverse composition in the room," he added.

India conducted Operation Sindoor early on May 7 to target terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK in response to Pahalgam terror attack. Indian Armed Forces subsequently repelled Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases.    

Subrahmanyam said India is at a turning point and at a take off stage where it can grow very rapidly and noted that several states have prepared, released or are on the verge of releasing their vision documents that are aligned with national priorities while being grounded in local realities.

Subrahmanyam said India is poised to be the world's third-largest economy in about three years.

"India is at a turning point... I think the country is at a takeoff stage where it can grow very, very rapidly. The Prime Minister gave a call to all states to prepare vision documents at their level and this is already visible in the growth of India. We are the 4th largest economy as I speak. We are a four trillion dollar economy. India today is larger than Japan. If we stick to what is being planned, what is being thought through, it's a matter of another 2.5-3 years, we would become the third largest economy," he said.

"The good thing is that almost 17 states have prepared and released or are on the verge of releasing their visions. Five of them have released visions- UP, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and others will come out by August," he added.

He said that at the last Governing Council meeting, the Prime Minister had given a call for all states to prepare their own state visions.

"The agenda for the meeting was two items apart from an action taken report. Firstly, the theme of the meeting itself and the first item in the agenda was 'Viksit Rajya for Viksit Bharat'. The whole idea is that in the last Governing Council, the Prime Minister had given a call for all states to prepare their own state visions, making their states develop so that they have visions which will then aggregate into a larger vision for the nation. So I think that is what drove the agenda for the last one year and that's why it became the primary theme of today's Governing Council meeting," he said.

Subrahmanyam said that under the overall theme, there were sub themes including manufacturing services, rural, non-farm, urban, informal, and the green economy, as well as circular economy.

He said PM Modi told the meeting that if the Centre and states come together and work as a team, no goal is impossible".

He (PM Modi) said that NITI has been helping a lot of states, and I think this effort should be continued. He talked about how states are the places where action is. So we need to focus on the themes which are there in the agenda. If you want employment, that means you need skilling; you need entrepreneurship. States have to do the action on multiple fronts. Most importantly, they need to focus on manufacturing. They need to focus on services, which means removing a lot of bottlenecks. And what kind of bottlenecks, changing policies, ease of doing business, removing obstacles, and removing obsolete laws, reducing compliance," Subrahmanyam said.

He said PM noted that some states have done a lot at their level, but there is a lot more to be done.The Prime Minister, he said, talked of creating investment-friendly atmosphere and a friendly competition among states.PM Modi also urged states to focus on exports and noted that the government is working towards or has concluded FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) with several countries The Prime Minister emphasised the need to leverage the FTAs.The theme of the meeting was 'Viksit Rajya for Viksit Bharat@2047". (ANI)