Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday dismissed as "professional pessimists" the critics of the Centre's target to achieve a USD 5-trillion economy within the next five years and asserted that the "new India" is on the threshold of sprinting forward. A day after the Union budget was presented by Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman, the prime minister shared his views on the budget at the launch of the BJP's membership drive here on the occasion of the 118th birth anniversary of party ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Modi said his government's Budget for 2019-20 lays down a roadmap for nearly doubling the size of the Indian economy to USD 5 trillion in five years by raising per capita income, boosting consumption and increasing productivity.
"Size of the cake matters. The larger the cake, larger pieces are what people will get. So we have set a target of making India a USD 5-trillion economy. Larger the size of the economy will be, the larger prosperity will it bring for the country," he said. Citing global examples, he said countries have leap-frogged from developing to developed status on the back of a jump in per capita income. “India can also do that. The target is not difficult," he said. Modi said some people are questioning the need for becoming a $5-trillion economy.
Govt eyeing Rs 50 lakh cr investment in railways by 2030: Goyal
Panaji: Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said the government was eyeing investment of Rs 50 lakh crore in railways by 2030 to make it the best in the world. Some sections of Indian Railways could be opened up for investment from the private sector which could operate its own railway lines in return for licence fees he said. He added that private sector investment was necessary if Indian Railways was to raise Rs 50 lakh crore over the next five years for modernisation and expansion of railway facilities across the country.
