"2004-2014 was decade of decay": Maharashtra Deputy CM Fadnavis at Viksit Bharat event

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], March 9 : Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took a veiled dig at the Congress party, saying that after the start of the new millennium, between 2004 and 2014, no action was taken for making the country 'developed', as former President APJ Abdul Kalam had envisioned and the period can be called the "decade of decay".
"Our Former President APJ Abdul Kalam used to say that the year 2000 will be very important because our country will get established as the youngest country in the world and if we could convert this youth power into human resources then we can become a 'developed' country...unfortunately in the first ten-fifteen years we did not do anything....after the new millennium started between 2004 and 2014 which was called 'decade of decay', no action was taken on the dream of APJ Abdul Kalam," Fadnavis said while speaking at a Viksit Bharat event in Pune.
Comparing the times of the earlier Congress regime with that of the Narendra Modi government, Fadnavis said, "During UPA, inflation was in double digits which has come down to 5 per cent...FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) inflow was 36 billion dollars which has come to 85 billion dollars now. Exports have risen from 300 billion dollars to 770 billion dollars...the current account deficit has improved from 5.1 per cent of the GDP to 2 per cent of GDP."
The Deputy Chief Minister pointed out that things changed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected to power in 2014.
"After 2014, PM Modi started a new working culture...in last ten years a lot of things changed...till we understand these changes, we will not be able to understand our targets," Fadnavis said.
The Deputy Chief Minister highlighted that in the last 10 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governance, the Indian economy prospered from the "Fragile Five" to the top five economies in the world.
"In the last ten years, we got centre stage in all sectors...In 2013, the Indian economy was in the 'Fragile 5' and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) had said that this economy would crash...but in 2022, everyone started saying that India is the brightest spot in the world economy...From Fragile 5 we entered the first five economies in the world in just ten years," Fadnavis said.
Highlighting PM Modi's goal of Viksit Bharat, Fadnavis said, "We are now the 5th largest economy in the world and PM said we will be the third largest economy by the end of his third term. Based on the roadmap we have before us for the next 25 years, we will be a developed nation by 2047."
The Deputy Chief Minister said that the country needs ambassadors across various sectors to realise the vision of 'Viksit Bharat'.
"To be a developed country, we need Viksit Bharat Ambassadors who can work in their respective sectors to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat," Fadnavis said.