A few months ahead of the 2019 general elections, one has to wonder what the Prime Minister has achieved in terms of development for this country. PM Modi was largely elected on the plank of development and his record speaks for itself.
Following is a brief, non-exhaustive synopsis of some of the work delivered by Modi government across the sectors of Education, Healthcare, Social Welfare, Infrastructure, Finance and Economy since coming to power in 2014.
Education:
- 6 new IITs, 7 new IIMs, 20 new AIIMS, 2 IISERs and 8000 new CBSE schools got approved.
- 5400+ schools equipped with Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL)
- ATLs expose school children to emerging technologies like 3D Printing, Robotics, IoT and microprocessors with an objective to create a million Indian innovators of tomorrow.
Healthcare:
- 10 crore (100 million) families to be given free health insurance cover of up to INR 5 lakh under Ayushman Bharat / PMJAYscheme. 3 lakh people already benefited within 50 days of the launch of the program
- 3.1 crore (31 million) children vaccinated against all preventable diseases under Mission Indradhanush. The program aims to ensure that all children under the age of two and pregnant women are fully immunized against life-threatening diseases
Social Welfare:
- 1.25 crore (12.5 million) houses constructed for poor under PMAY scheme. This is 5 times the number of houses built under UPA’s last 4 years – 25 lakh (2.5 million). On target to achieve “housing for all” by 2022
- 20 crore Rural Households got electrified. 16 states achieved 100% electrification status. Real-time status of this program is accessible on Saubhagya dashboard.
- 5 crore (50 million) women got LPG gas connections for smoke-free cooking under Ujjwala scheme. LPG coverage rapidly increased from 56% to 80%
- 12 crore (120 million) individuals received collateral free Mudra loans under PMMY scheme to help them start/expand their business. 28% of the beneficiaries are first time entrepreneurs.
- Cleaning of River Ganga gained momentum under NMCG (National Mission for Clean Ganga) project. As per published data, 12,000 MLD (million liters a day) of sewage is generated in the Ganga basin
- 2014 treatment capacity was 485 MLD
- 2018 treatment capacityincreased to 4,000 MLD (8 times higher)
- Another 94 projects, with a treatment capacity of 1,900 MLD are ongoing
- 8.8 crore (88 million) toiletsconstructed to eliminate Open Defecation under Swachh Bharat mission.
- More toilets constructed in 4 years than by all the previous governments put together in lthe ast 67 years.
- Sanitation coverage soared from 38% to 96%
- 5 lakh villages, 530 districts and 25 states / UTs achieved Open Defecation Free status.
- On target to make India 100% Open Defecation Free by October 2019. Real time status of this project is accessible on Swachh Bharat Dashboard.
Infrastructure:
- 73% more highways were built in the four years of BJP government than UPA’s last four years.
- Highway construction which was in the range of 4000+ km per year from 2008 to 2014, was increased to 6,000 km in FY 2016, 8,000 km in 2017 and 10,000 km in 2018
- Better connectivity translates to a reduced cost of logistics, faster trade and rapid economic growth
- 15 new cities started Metro rail construction projects. 660+ km of new tracks are under construction. By 2014, Metro was operational in 8 cities with 370 km of tracks.
- 24 new airports and helipads started under RCS (Regional Connectivity Scheme) out of which 22 are in North East. 9 new airports and helipads in Arunachal Pradesh, 5 in Assam, 5 in Manipur, 1 each in Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim and 2 in J&K to increase connectivity with remote hilly areas.
- Construction started for new International Airports in Navi Mumbai and Noida to reduce the overload on currently saturated airports in Mumbai and New Delhi
- 2,48,000 km of optical fibre connected 3 lakh villages to high-speed broadband services. UPA II had laid only 350 km.
- 1,10,000 village panchayats digitally connected by optical fibre. Digitally connected village panchayats from 2011 to 2014 were only 59.
- Solar Power Generation Capacity increased by 8 times from 2.6 GW in 2014 to 20 GW by 2018, 4 years ahead of its 2022 target. Total solar power generation capacity installed in 5 years from 2009 to 2014 was only 2.6 GW
- 2022 target is now upped to 100 GW
- 134% increase in Infrastructure expenditure between last year of UPA government and current year of present government. Investment in road sector itself increased by 189%
Economy & Finance:
- INR 3 lakh crore recovered from bank loan defaults because of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) within 2 years from launch. As explained in this report, 10 lakh crores of NPAs were created under UPA
- INR 1.1 lakh crore worth recovered black money recovered through various government schemes
- 34 lakh (3.4 million) new indirect taxpayers registered within 1 year of launching GST
- Number of Income Tax returns zoomed by 80%
- IT returns filed in FY14 – 3.79 crore
- IT returns filed in FY18 – 6.84 crore
- 3 crore new tax filers added within 4 years – almost the same number that was added in previous 67 years
- INR 10 lakh crore collected in Direct tax collections in FY 2018. Direct tax growth rate soared to 7 years high of 17%
- FY 15 – 8.9%
- FY 16 – 6.9%
- FY 17 – 14.6%
- FY 18 – 17.1%
- Direct tax buoyancy has tripled(higher tax buoyancy indicates increasing tax compliance)
- FY 16 – 0.6
- FY 17 – 1.3
- FY 18 – 1.9
- from FY08 to FY14, direct tax buoyancy had hovered between 0.5 and 1.1
- Total Tax to GDP ratio soared by 1.5% to touch 11.5%. For more than 50 years, India’s tax to GDP ratio was stuck at 10% or less
- The number of mobile companies in India increased by 60 times.
- 2014 – 2
- 2018 – 120
- Jobs created – 400,000
- Global mobile phones produced in India
- 2014 – 3%
- 2018 – 11%
- India became the world’s second-largest mobile producer within 3 years
- India’s home grown digital payment solutions RuPay cards and UPI based BHIM wallet grew exponentially
- UPI based digital payments in India since 2016 (data source: Forbes)
number of transactions:
2016 – 93,000
2018 – 23.5 crore
value of transactions:
2016 – 3.1 crore
2018 – 46,000 crore
- RuPay card usage at point-of-sales (data source: Economic Times)
The number of transactions:
FY 2016 – 195 million
FY 2017 – 459 million (up by 135%)
The number of RuPay cards in circulation:
2017 – 365 million
2018 – 494 million (up 35%)
Almost half of India’s 1 billion debit and credit cards now go through country’s homegrown RuPay network giving a tough competition to strong global players like Mastercard
- India’s rank in “Ease of Doing Business” improved from 142 to 77 – a jump of 65 places – most by any country ever. After cracking “Top 100”, India is now targeting “Top 50”
- India’s rank in “Global Competitiveness Index” improved from 71 to 39 – ja ump of 32 places – next to only China in BRICS.
- Fiscal Deficit consistently brought down from 4.5% to 3.5% of GDP. Since 2008 under UPA, Fiscal Deficit ranged between 5% to 6.5% of GDP
- Foreign Exchange Reserves surged from $290 billion to $400 billion. Since 2007, Forex reserves were stuck in the $290 billion range.
Areas with improvement potential:
- Exports have been increasing since 2016 but not fast enough. India is yet to break away from its all-time high of $300 billion in exports
- Imports are rising faster than exports, hence Trade Deficit has been widening since 2016
- The government needs to find long-term solutions to increase Exports, reduce Imports, control trade deficit and reduce Current Account Deficit
- The ongoing USA-China trade war provides a strategic opportunity for India to significantly increase exports to both of these world’s two biggest economies. Increased exports will also help in controlling the exchange rate for INR
- The decline in private investments has continued. The government needs to find ways to shore up private investment if the coveted double-digit GDP growth rate is to be achieved and maintained
