Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday made a direct pitch to entrepreneurs to become soldiers of development and help India cut down dependence on imports while ensuring it becomes a 'less-cash' economy.
Addressing over 200 CEOs and startups here, he asked them to work towards increasing agricultural exports and promoting tourism.
"Gandhiji made Independence a mass movement. Every government has tried to take India forward. But development has not become a mass movement," Modi said at the 'Champions of Change' initiative organised by the Niti Aayog.
"In the same spirit as what Mahatma Gandhi did for the freedom struggle, we need to make India's development a mass movement," he emphasised.
Calling on the entrepreneurs to become soldiers of development, Modi said that by working together "we can solve several problems the country faces".
Stressing that India needs to move towards becoming a less-cash society, he asked the CEOs to encourage the use of BHIM app for cashless transactions and ensure by 2022 that employees go cashless.
He also asked them to try out khadi coupons as Diwali gifts.
Referring to tourism and its enormous potential in job creation, Modi said: "We Indians don't take pride in our rich heritage. If we begin talking about it with pride, the world will be desperate to visit India."
The prime minister spoke of end-to-end solutions for India. "If this generation thinks of feasible solutions to our unique problems, markets and jobs will automatically be created," he added.
On various initiatives of his government, Modi talked about GeM (Government-e-Market) portal that was introduced recently to increase transparency in government purchases.
He pointed out that even small suppliers can sell their products to the government through the portal.
As many as 28,000 small suppliers have sold their products worth Rs 1,000 crore to the government through the portal in the past four to six months.
Calling the CEOs as his team, Modi made the point that that India's development must be made a mass movement and entrepreneurs should think of what more they can do for the country's growth and the poor.
He asked them to provide policy inputs and be the harbinger for change.
For the government, he said, welfare of its citizens and their happiness is supreme.
He regretted that around Rs 1 lakh crore of agri products—from fruits to vegetables—go waste because of lack of infrastructure.
Giving the example of value addition in agriculture, the prime minister said a multi-pronged approach is essential for achieving desired objectives such as doubling of agriculture income.
Highlighting the importance of food processing, he said lack of infrastructure is leading to huge losses in the agriculture sector.
Modi stressed on the need to focus on export-oriented agri products, saying innovative ideas like cultivating timber on fringes of farm land will help achieve the goal of doubling farmers' income.
Six groups of the CEOs made presentations before the prime minister on themes such as Make in India, Doubling Farmers' Income, World Class Infrastructure, Cities of Tomorrow, Reforming the Financial Sector and New India by 2022.
Appreciating the new ideas and innovations envisaged in the presentations made by the CEOs, Modi thanked them for the valuable inputs and time devoted to ideation for the benefit of the country.
He added that the key decision making team of the government has listened carefully to the presentations, and will surely benefit in their policy-making, from the 360 degree view of issues that have been presented.
Among others, the CEO offered suggestions on doubling farmers' income through scrapping of the APMC Act and enabling an open market for agricultural products in India.
A suggestion was also made to transform 700 district headquarters hospitals into medical centres through PPP and hub and spoke mode within a time-bound action plan.
