PM Modi promises jobs; assures help to small and medium businesses

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the government is replacing archaic policies with new, updated frameworks to create jobs and help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) compete globally.

The PM criticised the previous UPA regime led by Congress and held them responsible for the messed-up banking sector, Business Standard reported.

Speaking at Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci)'s 90th annual general meeting, Modi said that his government has already brought in 87 reforms in 21 sectors since it took office in May 2014.

"My government is making new policies. Old laws are being scrapped and we are framing new ones. We have already come out with new policies in urea, textiles, aviation, transport integration, health. The new textile policy would generate 10 million jobs, while the urea policy had resulted in 1.8-2.8 million tonnes of its production without adding any new plant," the PM said.

Ahead of the last phase Gujarat's assembly election, Modi spoke high of the SMEs in a move to woo voters. The SMEs can now directly sell their products to the government through e-marketplace, the PM said.

After the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST), micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from Gujarat had protested across the state. PM Modi and the BJP however, contained them saying that GST would make MSMEs globally competitive.

"The reforms undertaken by the NDA government had pushed up forex reserves by $100 billion in the past three years to $400 billion. In the construction sector, 70 percent of all foreign investments came in the past three years, while air transport sector saw FDI increased by 75 percent," Modi said.

The PM further praised the government's performance and said that the policies have resulted in improvement of India's rank in World Bank's latest ease of doing report by 30 notches.

He urged small businesses to embrace GST even if their turnover was just a few lakh of rupees, and mentioned that the government was not eyeing revenues from them.