‘It is important to meet the needs of farmers, women, youth and the poor’- FM

New Delhi| Infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusiveness (taking everyone along) need to focus on four key areas for the Narendra Modi government to make India a developed nation by 2047. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said these things in Washington.

Speaking to students of Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Finance Minister said that there is a need to meet the needs of farmers, women, youth and the poor. Sitharaman reached Washington to participate in the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. They drove from New York to Washington D.C. and stopped at the University of Pennsylvania.

“The year we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of independence from British rule, that is, in 2047, we want to be and aspire to be a developed country”, Sitharaman told the students. The Finance Minister said that to achieve this goal, the government has identified four key areas – these are infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusivity.

“The first is infrastructure, whether physical or digital like bridges and ports which is important for many different purposes”, he said. Secondly, investment will have to be made in it. This also includes private investment. But more importantly, there has to be public investment to get the whole thing started.”

Sitharaman said the third area of focus is innovation and stressed the need for innovative solutions to the problems related to India and its aspirations. She said, “Many of the things for which we want solutions cannot be made and delivered to India anywhere else”. This would increase costs and would not be appropriate. We want a solution for this. We want quick solutions to many of our problems. That becomes the challenge in terms of innovations.”

Sitharaman said that the most important thing is inclusivity. “In everything we do, we want to make sure everyone is included”, she said.

She also said, “There is a provision for affirmative action in the Constitution”. You have to uplift the poor, you have to uplift the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It’s a commitment given in the Constitution.” The Finance Minister said that apart from this, there is a need to meet the needs of four groups – farmers, women, youth and the poor and ensure that they get access to resources and opportunities.