CARGOCONNECT-MARCH2024 - Flipbook - Page 8
FRONTLINE
NARENDRA MODI
Prime Minister of India
Development of Haryana is necessary for the nation to
become Viksit Bharat. The first phase of Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot
section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway has already been
inaugurated, while laying of new railway lines for
Rohtak-Meham-Hansi and Jind-Sonipat and the doubling of
Ambala Cantt-Dappar lines will enhance Ease of Living and
Ease of Doing Business. There is also fast-paced
development of South Haryana in terms of road and rail
services. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, the longest
expressway in India, passes through Gurugram, Palwal and
Nuh districts of Haryana. Haryana is making a huge name
for itself when it comes to the textile and apparel industry
which exports more than 35 percent of the carpets and
manufactures about 20% of the garments in India. The
small-scale industries are taking Haryana’s textile industry
forward. Panipat is famous for handloom products,
Faridabad for textile production, Gurugram for
readymade garments, Sonipat for technical textiles
and Bhiwani for non-woven-textiles.
India continues to be a preferred FDI destination
despite soaring global interest rates. Interest rates rose
worldwide including in the US and that led to the flow of
capital back in the developed nations. That was a period
where one would have imagined a much deeper impact on
the developing economies than what India witnessed, but
the strength of demand in India, the strength of
opportunities that people saw in India, ensured that we did
not see the drastic fall that many of our other peer
countries (witnessed). A lot of reinvestment of earnings
happened even during this period when ideally I would
have thought global balance sheets were very stressed.
The material factor is that it (FDI) continues to come in. A
very continuous and rapid growth of money flow
PIYUSH GOYAL
Union Minister for Commerce sometimes is “very harmful” for an economy also, so I
and Industry, Consumer Affairs, think India has been able to create a very fine balance
in our control of inflation.
Food and Public Distribution
and Textiles
SUMITA DAWRA
Special Secretary (Logistics),
Department for Promotion of
Industry and Internal Trade
(DPIIT)
KRISTALINA
GEORGIEVA
Managing Director,
International Monetary Fund
(IMF)
There has been notable achievement of PM GatiShakti
National Master Plan (NMP) with regard to onboarding of
39 individual line ministries and 36 state/UTs, uploading of
1,463 data layers from Central ministries and states/UTs
and development of tools and use cases by the ministries
as well as states on NMP. Substantial progress in mapping
of the projects has been made on the portal. Further,
emphasis was placed to extensively utilise the PM
GatiShakti portal for identifying first and last-mile
connectivity gaps to new and emerging economic nodes.
The projects identified under PM GatiShakti are catalysts
for economic activities, facilitating the seamless
movement of goods and services and attracting and
de-risking investments for enhanced productivity and
demand-led approach to infrastructure development. Over
1,300 infrastructure projects were envisaged as part of
the PM GatiShakti initiative across diverse ministries/
departments for comprehensive infrastructure
planning, ensuring inclusive growth.
India has been a bright spot in the world economy, and it
continues to be so. We are upgrading projections for Indian
growth to 6.5% in 2024. This comes on the back of fairly
strong performance in 2023. The success of India is grounded in the pursuit of reforms over the last years. One very
significant advantages of India is the bold actions on the
digital front with the digital public infrastructure, digital ID
and making digital a strong comparative strength of India
allowing small entrepreneurs to tap into markets in the way
they were not able to do before. Last but not least, India
recognises that innovation is what is going to drive a future
competitiveness, very effective and efficient investment in
R&D as we saw with the moon landing. This creates a very
fertile ground for future growth. We also see India’s
recognition that female participation in the labour markets
is insufficient. I think Prime Minister Modi is right to bet
on Indian women and open up more space for their
participation in the economy.
8 | CARGOCONNECT MARCH 2024
Union Minister for Road
Transport and Highways
The government is going to spend `2 lakh crore on road
infrastructure in Uttarakhand and its roads will be like
those in the United States by the end of 2024. `1.40 lakh
crore is being spent in Uttarakhand over road infrastructure
at present to which an additional `60,000 crore will soon be
added to make it a total expenditure of `2 lakh crore. I want
to announce that by the end of 2024, the national highways
in Uttarakhand will be matching international standards.
They will be like those in the US. In Rajasthan, the centre is
building express highways costing `60,000 crores apart
from the 1,382 km Delhi Mumbai Express Highway being
built for `1 lakh crore, of which work of `22,000 crore has
been done in the state. From Bandikui to Jaipur for `1,370
crore, we are constructing a 67-kilometre four-lane
expressway. Before the end of 2024 the national highways
of Rajasthan will be at par with the national highways
of America.
SARBANANDA
SONOWAL
The government would invest `60,000 crore by 2047 in
river cruise tourism and development of green vessels. It
will be through the public-private partnership (PPP)
model. We are going to invest `45,000 crore in river cruise,
which will take the passenger capacity from 2 lakh to 15
lakh by 2047. The government aims at investing another
`15,000 crore in green transport over the next 10 years to
develop 1,000 vessels and ferries. The projects will help
generate thousands of jobs. The `76,000 crore Vadhavan
Port has got a nod from the Union Environment Ministry
and a final approval from the Cabinet Committee on
Economic Affairs (CCEA) will soon be obtained. The Cabinet
is looking at whether the project will be approved in a
phased manner (like the Great Nicobar Container
Transhipment Terminal project) or in its entirety.
NITIN GADKARI
Union Minister of Ports, Shipping
& Waterways and Ayush
S KRISHNAN
Secretary, Ministry of
Electronics and Information
Technology (MeitY)
RAMPRAVEEN
SWAMINATHAN
Managing Director and CEO,
Mahindra Logistics
The total size of the digital economy in India is
presently upwards of US$300 billion. The size of the
software or the IT, ITeS sector would be around $200
billion, while the electronics sector would be over $100
billion. Our aim is that this over US$300 billion digital
sector should become US$1 trillion by the time India
becomes a US$5 trillion economy–we are expecting the
digital economy to be about 20% of the nation’s overall
economy. This is the direction in which we would like to
take software and the hardware sectors. The growth
opportunities in the digital economy are huge. We need to
realise that electronics is a sector that represents a global
value chain. No country, not even China controls the entire
value chain in electronics. We don’t have to make a 100%
value addition in India. That is not how modern trade
works. Modern trade works on the basis of specialisation
and competitive advantage. We have to create a
competitive advantage in India so that at least 30 to
35% of the value addition takes place in India.
We commend the recent government initiatives aimed
at improving conditions for drivers, including the introduction of an innovative GPS-based electronic toll collection
system on national highways and the announcement of
resting facilities. The revolutionary satellite-based toll
collection system is set to transform toll payment
methods, promising a seamless flow of vehicles without
the need to halt at toll booths. It will ensure continuous
tracking, accurately calculating toll charges based on the
actual distance covered. Furthermore, we appreciate the
government’s decision to establish 1,000 driver rest
facilities nationwide, recognising the pivotal role of truck
drivers covering over 2.8 million trucks and 100 billion
kilometres annually. By addressing common health issues
resulting from extended working hours and inadequate
hygiene, these state-of-the-art facilities aim to
significantly enhance the well-being and working
conditions of truck drivers, in turn, contributing
to safer roads and reduced accidents.
