How has the Narendra Modi government 3.0 fared in its first 15 days? From infrastructure push to keeping the focus on farmers, continuity has been the name of the game, but the pace of the work has accelerated. As PM Modi said ahead of the 18th Lok Sabha’s first session on Monday, the NDA government intends to put in “triple efforts” for “triple results” in its third term.
Here’s a look at the government’s 15-day report card.
INFRA PUSH
If Modi 2.0 was about a massive infrastructure push in the form of Atal Setu or mainstreaming the expansion of the Vande Bharat network, Modi 3.0’s first 15 days have shown the intent of not slowing the momentum, rubbishing concerns that priorities may change in a coalition government.
Approval for the development of an all-weather greenfield deep draft major port at Vadhavan in Maharashtra or the approval for the development of Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Varanasi, the PM’s Lok Sabha constituency, are examples of this sustained momentum.
On completion, Rs 76,200-crore Vadhavan Port will be one of the top 10 ports of the world. The Varanasi airport proposal includes the construction of a new terminal building, apron extension, runway extension, parallel taxi track and allied works.
The icing on the infra cake in the first 15 days of the new government has been the Indian Railways’ milestone of successful trial run on the newly constructed Chenab Rail Bridge, touted as the world’s highest railway bridge. The Chenab Rail Bridge is a steel and concrete arch bridge carrying a single-track railway line, located between Bakkal and Kauri in Reasi district of Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir.
3 CRORE MORE HOUSES
In its first 15 days, the Modi Cabinet decided to further expand the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and construct 3 crore additional rural and urban houses. Sources say this decision underscores the government’s commitment to addressing the housing needs of the nation, ensuring that every citizen enjoys a better quality of life.
The PM called it ‘ease of living’ and a matter of dignity for many Indians who can only dream of a house of their own. The PMAY, in the last 10 years, has ensured 4.21 crore houses for eligible economically poor families, according to the latest government figures.
Houses constructed under PMAY come with basic amenities such as toilets, LPG connection, electricity connection, and functional water tap connection.
FOCUS ON FARMERS
The first file PM Modi signed after taking oath for the third consecutive time was one to disburse PM Kisan’s 17th instalment of Rs 20,000 crore. He chose Varanasi to formally distribute certificates to more than 30,000 self-help groups known as ‘Krishi Sakhis’.
“PM Kisan Samman Nidhi has emerged as the world’s largest direct benefit transfer scheme,” the Prime Minister said, highlighting that more than Rs 3.25 lakh crore have been transferred into the bank accounts of crores of farmers, where Rs 700 crore have been transferred to the families in Varanasi alone.
Interestingly, the key Agriculture Ministry has been given to former MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The minimum support price law has been a long-standing demand of farmers, especially those from Punjab. While that still remains in the domain of discussion, the Modi cabinet approved increase in the MSP for 14 Kharif crops for marketing season 2024-25 for farmers across India.
GO GREEN
Having set a target of reaching Net Zero by 2070, Modi Govt 3.0 has also exhibited continuity in terms of carrying on with the push for renewable energy mechanisms in India.
It approved the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme for the implementation of offshore wind energy projects. This scheme aims to set up the first-ever offshore wind energy projects in India, generating 1GW of energy in a country that is familiar with power cuts. The approval also came for a 500MW offshore wind energy project for Tamil Nadu, including projects in Gujarat and the up-gradation of ports to meet the logistics requirements of the project.
India has, so far, been slow in developing offshore wind projects. But now, the government plans to tap into offshore wind projects totalling 70 GW along the coasts of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
DEVOTION
Among the recent images of the Prime Minister, the most striking is that of him meditating at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari, clad in saffron and clutching a jaap-maala. He has never shied away from his devotional self, be it a holy dip in Varanasi or meditation in Kedarnath.
In the first 15 days of the NDA government at the Centre, the new BJP government in Odisha reopened all four doors of the Jagannath Dham Temple in Puri. Reopening three gates of the Puri Jagannath Temple that had been closed since the Covid-19 pandemic was a key promise in the BJP manifesto.
The BJP government of Odisha, led by Mohan Charan Majhi, has also decided to set up a Rs 500 crore corpus for the Jagannath Temple.
OTHER DECISIONS
Amid the row over paper leaks, the Centre notified the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, a stringent law passed in February to prevent paper leaks and cheating.
Within 15 days of taking oath, PM Modi also inaugurated and revived the Nalanda University (New Campus) in Bihar’s Rajgir, released Rs 1.4 lakh crore tax devolution to states, and finalized the National Litigation Policy for Faster Justice among other key decisions.
During these two weeks, the ISRO successfully conducted the third and final landing experiment of Reusable Launch Vehicle ‘Pushpak’.
“The people of this country have given us a third term. Our responsibilities have also tripled. So I want to assure the people of this country that we will put triple efforts in this third term and get triple results,” PM Modi said on Monday before the new Lok Sabha session got underway.
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