Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that collaborative efforts in the spirit of cooperative federalism served as a force that enabled India emerge from the COVID pandemic while highlighting the efforts of state governments in addressing the challenge of COVID-19.
PM Modi spoke to the Governing Council of NITI Aayog at its seventh meeting and said, “According to its relative strength, each state made a significant contribution to India’s fight against COVID. India thus became recognised as a global leader and served as an inspiration for underdeveloped countries.”
This was the first physical meeting of the Governing Council since the outbreak of the pandemic, with the 2021 meeting held through video conferencing.
23 Chief Ministers, three Lieutenant Governors, two Administrators, and Union Ministers were present in the meeting. Rajnath Singh, the defence minister, presided over the discussion.
The Indian federal system and cooperative federalism became a global model during the COVID crisis, the Prime Minister claimed in his inauguration speech. He claimed that India had demonstrated to the world’s developing countries that it is possible to overcome obstacles while having little resources.
According to PM Modi, state administrations should receive credit for this because they concentrated on providing people with public services at the local level through cooperation across party boundaries.
The seventh conference, the Prime Minister emphasised, was the result of months of intensive brainstorming and talks between the Center and States to determine national goals. “For the first occasion in India’s seventy-five years of independence, all of the country’s chief secretaries gathered in one location and discussed crucial matters for three days. The agenda for this meeting was created through a collegial effort, “explained the prime minister.
The Prime Minister also emphasised the necessity for modernised agriculture, animal husbandry, and food processing in India in order for it to become self-sufficient and a leader in the world of agriculture.
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According to him, India’s fast urbanisation may be used as a strength rather than a weakness by using technology to guarantee convenience, open service delivery, and an improvement in the quality of life for every urban Indian.
Addressing the crowd in Gorakhpur, PM Modi lauded the Yogi Adityanath government for taking up development projects in the state. ‘Beginning of a fertiliser plant & AIIMS in Gorakhpur is sending out several messages. When there is a double engine govt, then work takes place in double speed. When work is done with honest intentions, then even calamities can’t become obstacles,’ PM Modi said.