"I WORK ON DEADLINES NOT HEADLINES"

PM Narendra Modi outlined his vision for the inclusive Bharat of the future even as he listed how far the country had come in that journey

The India Today Conclave is being held at a time when the world’s biggest democratic festival is about to begin. Today, when the whole world is caught in a whirlpool of uncertainty, one thing is certain, that India will continue to grow at a fast pace. Today, the mood of the nation is about making India the third-largest economy in the world. Today, the mood of the nation is to build a Viksit Bharat. 

Whenever I come to such a conclave, I am expected to leave you with a lot of headlines. However, I am someone who works not for headlines but deadlines. And this is why today I would like to talk of things that the media doesn’t find attractive. The media may not like to touch them but these are issues that touch the common man. Start-ups, for instance. Ten years ago, there were very few start-ups, hardly 100. Today, there are around 1.25 lakh registered start-ups. But India’s startup revolution is not recognised only by numbers, the real strength lies in the fact that these start-ups are in more than 600 districts of India—in a way, 90 per cent of the country’s area. This is a big achievement in itself. Otherwise, people think start-up means Bengaluru. But the youth in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities are leading the start-up revolution. And those [Opposition parties] that never discussed start-ups are now forced to talk about start-ups.