Farmers Movement Archive

Farm laws one of boldest moves ever made by govt: Rajnath

LUCKNOW Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday termed the centre’s three farm laws as one of the boldest moves ever made and said these would strengthen the farmers economically and also boost agricultural reforms. “There was a dire need for agricultural reforms in India. But, the previous governments did very little in this regard. It was only our government that took a bold step and passed three bills that would help farmers gain financial security and also strengthen agricultural reforms,” he said while inaugurating the UP Session at the 18th Indo-US Economic Summit organized on a virtual platform by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce-North India Council (IACC-NIC). The coronavirus pandemic had brought newer challenges in terms of disruption to supply chains, a downturn in industrial activities, negative growth in travel and tourism industry and there was no doubt that the Indo-US cooperation will go a long way to restore normalcy and further boost economic dynamism, said the defence minister, who was also the chief guest at the inaugural session of the summit. Singh listed a range of measures initiated by the NDA government to boost economic growth, saying global investors were now receiving a “red carpet” welcome in India instead of “red-tapism”. He said the trust between the government and the industry had increased following the scrapping of the retrospective taxation regime.“This was the much needed move that was never initiated by the previous governments. We have formulated progressive and investor-friendly tax policies. We have said ‘Good Bye’ to retrospective taxation,” added Singh. He said the government was preparing for “dynamic growth” in this entire decade and noted that there was a lot of scope for American and Indian defence firms to go for co-production and co-development of military equipment. The high-profile session moderated by Mukesh Singh, chairman, Lucknow Chapter, executive council member, IACC-NIC and State Head Arthur D. Little, senior advisor, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Uttar Pradesh, also saw discussion on the UP-US economic ties in the ‘Partner States-Uttar Pradesh-Partners in Progress’ session of the summit. Michael Rosenthal, director, North India Office, US Embassy in his address said that India-US relations were very old. “At present, in the global political equation, relations are being established between these meaningful democratic powers of the world not only through political but also through economic, cultural, social, military, technical, partnerships. We strive to strengthen UP-US relations and encourage American companies and investors to invest in Uttar Pradesh,” said Rosenthal. Arvind Kumar, ACS, industries, information technology and electronics department, UP highlighted various schemes run by the government to improve the economy of UP and attract investment. He said the land bank was being expanded to attract foreign investment in UP. “For the ease of industrial units, construction of new expressways, metro rail projects, elevated national expressway, dedicated freight corridor and Jewar International Airport in western UP is going on at a brisk pace,” he said.

Hindustan Times

15-09-2021

Lucknow