Country in middle of revolution with life-changing govt schemes: Jaishankar

PTI, Jun 11, 2022, 6:25 PM IST

Bengaluru: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said the nation is in the middle of a revolution with life changing dramatically and democratically due to life-transforming government schemes.

“There is, today, a very different India in the making. The scale of beneficiaries of schemes taken up in the last eight years to connect people to the banking system, electricity, housing, potable water, replacing firewood in kitchen with LPG, and public health will make you understand that India is in the middle of a revolution with life changing dramatically, and this ‘revolution’ is happening democratically,” Jaishankar said addressing students at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, on Atmanirbhar Bharat.

“The India you step into as you start off with your careers will be fundamentally different from the country how it was when you started your studies,” he explained.

The External Affairs Minister highlighted that the country was going through a socio-economic change in its bid to create a social security net, which would raise the bottomline of the nation.

Jaishankar said the country would be different in terms of its skills, demand, entrepreneurial and business acumen due to the implementation of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

According to him, the concept of Atmanirbhar Bharat means a better enabled-India, better fed, more healthy and more self-reliant and self-confident.

The self-reliant India is, however, not trying to get more strength by building walls, but by engaging with the global community.

The underpinning to Atmanirbhar Bharat is its people-centric policies, as the most important resource of a country is its people, Jaishankar said adding that raising the quality of human resources is one of the goals which would be a game-changer.

“If we have come up short in achieving few of these goals in the past compared to other countries, it is not due to our practice of democracy. Moreover, the process of correction has now begun,” he was quoted as saying in a press release.

He said the last-mile delivery is being made possible due to a enormous governance change and application of digital technology, which is significantly responsible for the scale of success of government schemes.

Stating that the new India is destined for a greater place in the world, Jaishankar said effective realisation of sustainable goals is key to achieve it. He listed some of the tools to attain these goals such as physical infrastructure, urbanisation, smart cities, digital policies and innovation push.