Today, March 12, is a very historic day. On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi started the Dandi Yatra from Sabarmati Ashram. This was a turning point in India's independence movement because this journey connected every corner of the country with a single goal: India's independence. Today, around 100 years after this historic journey, we Indians have set out on another journey. This journey is the journey of Developed India (Viksit Bharat). Our goal is one, our destination is one - Developed India. And in the attainment of this goal, the churning that happens in such summits and the nectar derived from them play a big role. I am grateful to all of you for inviting me to the Next Summit. Many colleagues from the country and the world have come here; some are old acquaintances as well. I greet you all.
Friends,
This period of the 21st century is like "na bhuto na bhavishyati" (neither happened before, nor will happen in the future). On one side is the horror of war, supply chains are being destroyed again, and questions are being raised on the relevance of global institutions like the United Nations. In such a period, our India is moving forward, even in these adverse circumstances. Today, at an important stage in history, the country whose name is discussed most is India. Amidst so many crises at present, every serious leader and every knowledgeable person in the world has great expectations regarding India. Just recently, the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, came to India. He said that the Global South will now decide the direction of the world, and the most powerful country to determine that direction will be India. Before this, Canada's PM Carney also said that over the next three decades, the centre toward which the world's Economic Gravity is shifting is India. French President Macron also believes that India has become an inevitable partner in solving the world's biggest issues. Today, if we extract the essence of the statements from global leaders in the tech and economic worlds, only one sentiment emerges. If you want to be a part of the future, you have to be associated with India; you have to be in India.
Friends,
Just now India has won the T20 World Cup. Everyone is happy, and in India, the matter of cricket is such that if talk of crores is going on in some office, some great presentation is going on, guests from abroad are giving a presentation, even then, he moves his eyes away from the slide for a moment to see what the score is. And someone or the other definitely asks—brother, what happened to the score? The same situation holds for the Indian economy today. Today, everyone wants a running commentary of the economy. What was the status of India's economy last month? What is the condition today? Countrymen remain curious to know all this. I do not remember whether such curiosity was in the country before. And if it was, when was it? This shows the level of Indians' aspirations and self-confidence today. This is also the biggest reason for the world's trust in India.
And friends,
Certainly, when so many expectations are attached, when the eyes of the world are on our country, then the responsibility of all of us increases even more.
Friends,
Today's India is not just moving forward. India is taking itself to the Next Level. Today, Next Generation physical infrastructure is being built in the country; we are moving toward Next Generation digital infrastructure. UPI has taken Digital Payments to the Next Phase. Today, India has become the country with the fastest real-time digital payments in the world.
Friends,
India today is also doing Next Generation reforms; it is riding on the Reform Express. At one time in India, many tasks and many decisions were considered Next to Impossible; today, India is taking those decisions too. It was once said that removing Article 370 was impossible. But today, the wall of Article 370 has fallen in Jammu and Kashmir. Once it seemed that everyone's connection to the banking system is impossible. But today, more than 50 crore Jan Dhan accounts have made this possible. Once, it seemed that ending Triple Talaq is impossible. But today, Muslim sisters have received freedom from this injustice. Once, 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies also seemed impossible. But today a law has been made for this. Once, India's limits were highlighted in space and advanced technology. But today Moon Mission, Semiconductor Mission, Quantum Mission—all these are leading India toward the Next Frontier of Technology.
Friends,
Today's India is not only dreaming dreams. India is making them true. That is why today the world is saying that India is not just progressing. India is moving to the Next
Friends,
A very important basis for a country's development is how we handle challenges. We all know that global circumstances change suddenly. In past years, we first saw the disaster of Corona, then saw the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and now another big war is going on very close to us. This war has pushed the entire world into a very big energy crisis.
Friends,
In such dire circumstances, it is very important how we as a nation compete with this. A time of crisis is, in a way, a test of the entire nation. We have to deal with the circumstances with peace and patience. By increasing public trust and making people aware, we have to move forward. And everyone has a role in this. Every political party, media, social institutions, industry, youth, village, city—everyone's role is important. And we have seen in the Corona period that when everyone moves together, the country's potential to compete with the crisis increases many times. Today, there is another challenge before the country, and therefore, we will have to make efforts together, keeping the national interest paramount and fulfilling our duties.
Friends,
Nowadays, there is much discussion regarding LPG. Some people are trying to create panic to push their own agenda. I do not want to make political comments about them at this time. But I will certainly say that by doing so, they are getting exposed before the public themselves and are also doing great damage to the country.
Friends,
Today, no country is untouched by the impact of this global crisis stemming from the war. To a greater or lesser extent, everyone is a victim. The Government of India, too, is leaving no stone unturned to deal with this crisis. And we are making efforts at different levels. In recent days, I have had conversations with the top leaders of many countries about this. Efforts are also ongoing to overcome the obstacles that have arisen in the supply chain.
Friends,
To support India's rapid development, it has been necessary to continuously promote different energy sources. And to strengthen this, we have worked on two levels simultaneously. First, that energy access increases in the country, we prepared the infrastructure.
And second so that we do not have to depend only on foreign countries for Energy, we emphasized self-reliance in the Energy sector. Now I give you some figures of the Gas sector itself. As of 2014, there were only 14 crore LPG connections in the country. That is, only about half of the families in the country had LPG connections. Today, there are more than double that number, i.e., about 33 crore domestic LPG connections. In the past 11 years, we have doubled our bottling capacity. Distribution centres have also increased from 13,000 to more than 25,000. In 2014, there were only 4 LNG Terminals in the country; today, their number has also doubled. The gas pipeline, which used to be about 3,500 kilometres long, has been expanded to 10,000 kilometres. Because about 60 per cent of LPG comes from abroad, import terminal capacity has also been significantly expanded at the country's large ports.
Friends,
Before 2014, only 25-26 lakh houses in the country had access to cheap gas through pipes, i.e., PNG. Today, this number has also reached more than 1.25 crore. In 2014, vehicles running on CNG in the country were also not more than 10 lakhs. Today, this number is more than 70 lakhs. And this is becoming possible only because City Gas Distribution networks have been established in more than 600 districts of the country in the last decade.
Friends,
This global crisis has once again shown why it is so necessary for any country to be self-reliant. That is why in past years, we have worked in a holistic way to make India self-reliant in energy sectors.
Friends,
To reduce dependence on petroleum, we emphasised ethanol and biofuels. Before 2014, the country had only one-to-one-and-a-half per cent ethanol blending capacity. Today, we are reaching near-20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol. If this work had not been done, we would have had to buy about 18 crore barrels of additional oil from abroad in the past 11 years. Looking at the situation today, due to ethanol, we have to import about 4.5 crore barrels less oil per year. That is, the country has saved about 1.5 lakh crore rupees from this alone.
Friends,
A very big consumer of petroleum in India is also our Railways. The electrification of railway lines in our country began 60 years ago. Despite this, until 2014, only 20 percent of railway routes could be electrified. On the remaining railway routes, thousands of diesel engines used to run. Today, nearly 100 percent electrification of the broad-gauge network in India has been completed. Due to this, in the year 2024-25 alone, Indian Railways has saved about 180 crore liters of diesel. If electrification had not happened, extra crude oil would have had to be imported every year to produce this much diesel. Similarly, we increased the metro network and focused on electric mobility.
Similarly, we have done another very big job regarding renewable energy. Today, half of our total installed power generation capacity comes from renewable sources. Our total renewable capacity today has crossed the historic figure of 250 gigawatts. Just think: in 2014, India's solar power capacity was only 2 gigawatts; today it has increased about 40 times to 130 gigawatts. To increase the use of electricity over gas for domestic use, the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana was implemented. So far, about 30 lakh families have installed rooftop solar under this scheme.
Friends,
Apart from this, we also worked on the GOBARdhan scheme. Under this, work was done on making Compressed Biogas. So far, more than 100 plants have started in the country and work is going on more than 600.
Friends,
In the field of petrol-diesel, we have also made extensive efforts in the direction of capacity building. Before 2014, India had almost no strategic petroleum reserve—that is, the capacity to store crude oil for times of crisis. Today, we have a strategic petroleum reserve of more than 50 lakh tonnes. And work is going on for even more capacity. In the past decade, we have also increased our refining capacity by more than 40 million tonnes annually. Only then has India become one of the world's largest refining hubs today. That is, you can guess on what a large scale and in what great directions we are working to make India self-reliant. We will certainly be able to compete with this crisis arising from the war. I have full faith in the 140 crore countrymen. Just as we brought the country out of the Corona crisis by being organised together, in the same way, we will overcome this global crisis too. And I will repeat again, as far as the government is concerned, we will not let any deficiency remain in any kind of effort or attempt. In every decision, the public interest will remain paramount.
Friends,
From the Ukraine war until today, we have seen how its impact continues to fall from the global market to the citizens of the world. But it has always been the every possible effort of the Government of India that the burden of the circumstances created by the war does not fall on the citizens of India. For example, when the Russia-Ukraine crisis escalated, fertiliser prices skyrocketed. Despite this, the bag of urea which was available for 3000 rupees in the international market, we gave to our farmers for only 300 rupees. 3000 rupees was going on in the world, in our place it was being given for 300; this time too, our every possible effort will be that the war has the minimum impact on the lives of the country's farmers and the country's citizens.
Friends,
At this important time today from this stage today, there is also a request to the state governments. It is necessary that black-marketing not occur and that rumours not spread; therefore, serious monitoring of the situation is required. Strict action is also necessary against those who are doing black marketing.
Friends,
The past decade has been one of sensitive governance along with self-reliance. A large part of our country, the people living there, remained far from the thinking of the Congress governments sitting in Delhi. But our government connected the people left behind in the race of development to the priorities of governance. Today, for the construction of such infrastructure as housing, roads, schools-hospitals in these areas, special campaigns like Aspirational District scheme, Aspirational Block scheme, and PM JANMAN scheme are being run.
Friends,
A very big sin of the Congress governments was also that they left a large part of the country to burn in the fire of Maoist terror. A very large part of almost every big state of the country was in the grip of Maoist terror. But friends, n the past years, the country took a resolution to change this situation. We moved forward with high morale. And the country is seeing its result today. In the year 2013, more than 180 districts—more than 180 districts—were affected by Maoist terror. Today, the number of districts affected by Maoist terror has reached single digits.Friends,
In the past year alone, more than 2100 Naxals have surrendered, more than 900 arrests have been made, and those who were not ready to give up weapons, security forces have killed more than 300 such hardcore Naxals. The result is that in the areas that were once forced to live under the shadow of fear, a new energy of development is flowing today.
Friends,
The speed at which India is moving forward today makes it is impossible to stop the speed of its progress. The aspiration of 140 crore Indians is at the next level today. I know that when one dream is fulfilled, new dreams, new aspirations take birth. I do not consider this a burden, but rather consider it the capital of the people's trust. Yes... I have some such well-wishers in the country who think that under the burden of expectations, Modi will someday be crushed, will someday be suppressed; but their intention is so foul that their expectations are never fulfilled, and as long as the blessings of the countrymen are there, they will not be fulfilled either. Now only the hopes and aspirations of 140 crore Indians will be fulfilled. India will become self-reliant in every sector; India will become developed in every condition.
With this sentiment, I conclude my speech.
A huge thanks to all of you again.
Thank you!
