Need to change laws, speed up processes to transform India: PM

Stressing on transformation of governance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that transformation of India cannot happen without transformation of governance. “Transformation of governance needs transformation in mindset and transformative ideas. Nowadays development depends on quality of ideas and institutions,” Modi said, while inaugurating the first Transforming India series lecture organised by NITI Aayog on Friday.

“If India has to meet the challenge of change, mere incremental progress is not enough. A metamorphosis is needed to meet the challenge. Nations cannot march through the 21st century with the administrative systems of the 19th century and there is need of collective opening of the minds, to let in new, global perspectives, the Prime Minister said, adding that the country has to change it laws, speed up processes and adopt technology for the development.

Modi said that countries can no longer develop in isolation but needed ideas from outside, which was the purpose of the lecture series under the auspices of NITI Aayog. The first lecture was delivered by Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam on ‘India in the Global Economy’.

Spelling out the objective of creation of Niti Aayog, Modi said, “The Niti Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) was created last year as an evidence-based think tank to guide India’s transformation, including to learn from global standards.”

Asking all secretaries of the government to conduct a follow up discussion in a week’s time, with the participants from their ministries, the PM said, “The purpose is to convert ideas that emerge in  Friday’s session into specific action points relevant to each group. Wherever possible, I request the ministers also to participate in these sessions.”

Stressing on empowerment of people, Shanmugaratnam emphasised on strong social and political cuture for a strong society. “Education system is a big challenge in India and there is a need to increase the education budget,” the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore said.