PM Narendra Modi at the Rising Bharat Summit in New Delhi.
Alleging that previous governments did not take care of the middle class on the education front, the prime minister said India has seen a record number of new IITs, IIMs, and medical colleges
In a departure from tradition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wooed the Indian middle class on Wednesday as he talked about the benefits his government has brought in to change their lives. The middle class — a core voter base of the BJP that often feels dejected in the larger scheme of things — was PM Modi’s target audience as he delivered the keynote address on the final day of CNN-News18’s Rising Bharat Summit.
“Earlier, a salary of Rs 2 lakh was taxable but now even Rs 7 lakh is exempted. People saved around Rs 45,000 crore in a year due to GST. In the last 10 years, interest in home loans and personal loans has also gone down. It’s the middle class that is reaping the maximum benefits of schemes like PM Sukanya Samridhi Yojna,” said the prime minister.
He touched the pulse of the middle class when he said it’s the dream of many of them to ensure their children have a better life than them. One key factor in that direction is education, and PM Modi alleged that previous governments did not take care of the middle class on the education front.
“In the last 10 years, we added a new college in India every day. Daily, a new college. We have made a new university every week. India has seen a record number of new IITs, IIMs, and medical colleges. Till 2014, there were less than 400 medical colleges in India. But that figure has reached 700 in the last 10 years. In 2014, there were just 50,000 MBBS seats across India which have now increased to more than one lakh. We have double the PG seats in medical as well. The government’s decision to teach medical and engineering in the local language has also benefited the middle class,” the prime minister said.
Tapping the upwardly mobile aspirational India that sends its children abroad for higher studies, Modi said, “Our middle-class families spend thousands of crores for educating their children abroad. Our government is working in a direction to ensure that this money is saved. Today, many top universities have started to open campuses in India. To help foreign universities, the government has changed rules.”
PM Modi also reminded about new emerging sectors like space, start-ups or drone and mapping sectors which have been opened for India’s youth. He mentioned reforms in the defence sector and infrastructure building in the sports sector which have a direct bearing on the lives of the middle class.
Targeting a large section of home buyers of Delhi-NCR who often complain of inordinate delay or fraud by builders, PM Modi said: “People of Delhi-NCR know how so many flats were stuck during the previous regime. They were staying on rent, paying EMIs and spending life hoping to have their home one day. No governments listened to the middle class earlier. Our government has arranged Rs 25,000 crore to complete such incomplete projects so that the middle class gets their home against the investment they have made.”
He also highlighted the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) which penalises builders for delays, adding that 1.25 lakh buildings have been registered under RERA. “Ab koi ye manmani nahi kar sakta,” PM Modi said. Listing all the work his government has done, the prime minister said, “Yahi to Modi ki guarantee hai”.
The middle class made up 432 million of the population in 2020-22 and is expected to grow to 715 million in 2030-31. This segment is often called India’s growth engine that drives its economy. It is about to touch 1.02 billion in 2047 when PM Modi hopes to turn India from a developing nation to a developed one.
Ahead of a Lok Sabha election where PM Modi has set a target of BJP-led NDA to cross the 400 mark, the prime minister used the Rising Bharat Summit to reach out to 31 per cent of India’s population that dreams of a better future.
