Opinion: Should 2019 be the year of renaissance for Brand Modi ?

Brand Modi has definitely carved an impeccable official record when it comes to building a Digital India. Every second region or politician and as a matter of fact individual wants to talk "Digital India"  and wants to stand up a good stead in bifurcating and benchmarking stats and counters in the Digital scorecards that may promise to catapult our economy and give it the "silver wheels " yet shiny and new. Although, many debates that many of our packaged schemes in Digital India with the "Ache Din aa Gaye " tag was nothing but the same wine in the new packaging as the predecessors?

If you hear the Congress Party, the verdict is that the Modi Regime has spelled doom for entrepreneurs and risen a breed of angry businessmen. Not just that, they have given us a completely distorted version of GST and surpassed economic freedom by policing Tax policies.

Go to small cities and the usual SMB vendor is heard complaining as the businessman or the distributor he buys from; affirms and implies GST; therefore; the price rise on commodities already increases.

The Economic growth has slowed down by 1-2 percent as per data gathered internally; blame it on demonetization. Specifically, Sectors such as textiles and leather have been marginalized due to eroding margins owing to low growth in exports.

On facts and figures, the textile export sector that happens to contribute the third largest foreign exchange business grew by only .75% in 2017 and 2018. This obviously has lost a lot in terms of jobs and livelihoods.

 Move a little further and we see, On a slightly more magnified version, that India's defense budget is nowhere near to preparedness for a War as overheads are gigantic; pensions and overheads coupled with Salaries.

So does the Modi Regime lackluster?

Let us look at some positives !! Many of us agree that BJP has catapulted into a Pan India Party with Modi being christened as a Global Brand. Our relationship with Japan has strengthened and we have also bettered our association with countries like Bangladesh. The world looks at Modi with respect and therefore India did win some brownie points when it comes to "Good governance" and Global presence.

We have initiated Projects that we only dreamt of; a good example can be bullet trains.

We can quickly recollect that FDI was a key lead runner with the Modi Brand, with approx Dollar 60 Billion this year as against Dollar 36 Billion in 2013-2014. It is a pure win-win.

We also saw many defense deals signed and India securing a rank amongst World's top five spenders in the Defence sector. This is pretty obvious considering China has a place amongst the top five across the Globe.

As per a source, India has inked 187 contracts involving Rs 2.40 lakh Crores of purchases from Indian and Foreign vendors in the last 4 years.

Rural electrification has shown indomitable progress in terms of pace and outreach albeit we still have some caveat there.

The UIDAI Project or Aadhar did see some progress and is the World's largest ID system implemented. Its implementation has significantly advanced.

The NHPS (National Health Protection Scheme) is a path breaker, offering healthcare cover up to Rs 5 lakh per family for serious illness. The scheme intends to cover 10 crore families and addresses weaker sections of society.

"Swachh" Bharat stood up to be a cleanliness drive that stood against all odds and has managed to secure a higher Brand recall. As per an internal data source, 46.36 Lakh Toilets and 306,064 community and public toilets have been constructed.

There were other star Runners like Mudra Yojna and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. In the former, loans are given to small entrepreneurs with little or no collateral to generate employment. The latter or the Jan Dhan Yojana has created over 312 million new bank accounts; the DBT or Direct Benefit Transfer has subsidized LPG for the underprivileged.

We have had many My Gov initiatives in the  Modi Regime in the form of Digitisation on the internet with initiatives such as  BHIM and Umang app, seamlessly integrating our economy and governance policies. This is commendable as bringing together all government services under one platform and digitizing them can be a herculean task.

"Make in India" is supposedly the frontrunner especially when we see China being dependable and acknowledged player across the globe in manufacturing locally for other countries. The FDI is now open in the defense manufacturing sector and we have seen initiatives such as "Rafale" deal stirring some action. So albeit a good initiative, this needs to brace upon account India's low ranking on "ease of doing business" and "non-reforms in the labor policy" sectors. Let us hope for the best though as we really appreciate the initiative

Modi Government has had some fair shares of Stars pinned up their sleeves and some obscure black holes lined up their shoulders. However, Brand Modi remains fascinating.  Be it his constant bask in the limelight corporate cultures or the Khaadi and Nehru attires that speak a volume about the legacy he has built in India and must we say the globe.



Deepa Sayal

(IndiaIncharge Newsdesk)