Saved economy that was heading towards disaster, says PM Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that discussions on achieving the vision of making India a USD 5 trillion economy did not come all of a sudden and asserted that the country has strengthened itself in the last five years to achieve such goals.

"Talks on 5 trillion dollar economy have not come all of a sudden. Our country has strengthened itself so much in the last five years that we can aim to achieve such goals," Modi said while addressing the inaugural session of '100 years of ASSOCHAM'.

"Every group that can enable the economy is keeping the target of USD 5 trillion economy at the centre of its plans and talks are happening in several sectors. These discussions are positive. Credit for every achieved target goes to the people and not to the government," he added.

The Prime Minister asserted that his government took steps to stabilise the economy that was heading for a disaster in the last five years.

"Five to six years back, our economy was heading towards disaster. Our government has not only stabilised it but also made efforts to bring discipline to it. We have paid attention to fulfilling the decades-old demands of the industry," he said.

He also spoke about India's rapid rise in the 'Ease of Doing Business' rankings since his government took over in 2014 and outlined that his government is making efforts to allow industrialists to do business with ease in the country.

"You climb up the 'Ease of Doing Business' rankings when you work hard day and night, when you bring about a change in the policies, starting from the ground. We were on the 142nd spot out of 190 countries on the Ease of Doing Business Index when I took office. In just three years, we have jumped to 63rd," Modi said.

"We have tried to formalise most of the sectors of the economy. We are also moving forward by using technology to modernise and speed-up the economy. For bringing transparency, efficiency and accountability, we are moving towards faceless tax administration," he added.

He asserted that the business sector wanted procedures to be simplified and made more transparent, saying "habits of 70 years take time to change".

"A company gets registered in just a few hours nowadays and not weeks. Time-saving has been done in Trading Across Borders by automation. Turn-around time has been decreased at ports and airports by better linking of infrastructure," the Prime Minister said.

He said that his government has heard grievances of farmers, labourers and industrialists in order to improve the business climate of the country.

"From providing measures to increase digital transactions to GST, and from Aadhaar linked payments to DBT, we have tried to include such positive moves in our economy," the Prime Minister further said.