BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Photo: AFP
New Delhi:
Narendra Modi,
the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, said on
Sunday that there is a need to boost manufacturing to revive the
domestic economy.
Modi said the three pillars to develop the country were that
agriculture should have a one-third share of the nation’s gross domestic
product (GDP), manufacturing sector should account for one-third and
the services sector should account for the rest. The manufacturing
sector contributes to 14% of GDP.
“These
are the three things that are needed to develop the country. We cannot
let any of them go unattended,” Modi said at the hustings in Jagraon in
Punjab. Modi had first started his public meetings from Punjab on 23
June last year after becoming the BJP’s chief poll campaigner. Punjab
has a total of 13 Lok Sabha seats, but the importance of the state
increases because people of Punjab are settled in all states of northern
India, including Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.
While
talking about the need to reform the agricultural sector, Modi said new
technology must be introduced to increase yields. “Land is limited and
because of the increase in division of land within a family, there is
smaller land with farmers,” he said. “We must increase yield and also
introduce value addition in agricultural sector to increase the income
of farmers. There should be better branding and marketing of
agricultural products.”
The
Gujarat chief minister said there is an urgent need to increase the
number of cold storages and warehouses so that there is management of
foodgrain and farm produce to help reduce wastage. “The Food Corporation
of India must be divided in three different sections. The first section
must handle procurement, second must look at storage and management and
third section must handle distribution. These three must only focus on
how to improve work with greater efficiency,” he said.
Modi
also said that the BJP-led alliance was called National Democratic
Alliance (NDA) during the election, but that the focus of the alliance
is development. “When in government, NDA stands for national development
alliance. Our only focus is development. We only believe in
development,” said Modi. The BJP now has three main partners in its
coalition—the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab and the Shiv Sena and
RPI in Maharashtra. It has also entered into a pact with some smaller
parties in Tamil Nadu.
MUNTAZIR ALAM
PGDM-IIsem
SOURCE-MINT
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