The country has great stakes in the return of the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Tuesday and expressed the hope that India will emerge as the world’s third largest economy in Modi’s third term.

The country has great stakes in the return of the government headed by PM Modi in order to continue the upward trend in India’s growth story, he said.

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Speaking at a public function in Udhampur of Jammu division, he said, “In 2014, when PM Modi took over, India stood as the world’s tenth largest economy. In less than ten years, we jumped to the fifth position after overtaking the United Kingdom, which had ruled over us for nearly two centuries. Hopefully this year, it will emerge as the fourth largest economy and during PM Modi’s third term, India will be the world’s 3rd largest economy, marching on to become the Number one economy by 2047.”

Dr Singh said, in the past ten years under PM Modi, India is recording a rapid rise in a slew of global benchmarks.

During 2023-24, the Indian economy grew at 7 per cent plus for the third successive year even as the global economy struggled to grow at more than 3 per cent.

He said India has the third largest Start-up Ecosystem globally and is home to the fastest-growing unicorns. “From just about 350 StartUps in the year 2014, their number in India grew over 300 times in over nine years. After PM Modi gave the clarion call ‘StartUp India, Stand Up India’ from the ramparts of the Red Fort in his Independence Day address and rolled out the special StartUp scheme in 2016, today we have over 1,30,000 Startups, besides more than 110 Unicorns,” he said.

Dr Singh said within a short span of just about four years, the number of Space Startups has gone up from a mere single digit to over 150. Besides, there are more than 6,300 BioTech Startups and over 3,000 Agritech Startups in the Lavender sector of Jammu & Kashmir itself.

“About 4,000 people are engaged with Lavender cultivation and earning lakhs of rupees, quite a few of them do not have high qualifications, but are very innovative,” he said.

Dr Singh said,” In the Global Innovation Index, we ranked 81 in 2014, we have jumped 41 places, today we are at number 40 in the world.
“India of 2024 is ready to take a giant leap, backed by its scientific acumen and technological prowess.”

Referring to Udhampur-Kathua-Doda as among the most developed Lok Sabha constituencies in the last 10 years since 2014, the minister said today this constituency was being cited as a role model. He said not only several national and first-of-its-kind projects were brought in the past 10 years, but even those projects which had been abandoned by the earlier governments, were revived.

Very recently, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Bhaderwah town of his constituency made national news when its Lavender Farms were displayed in the Republic Day Parade at Kartavya Path, New Delhi and the constituency is now known as the birthplace of “Purple Revolution”, which has given the world a new genre of Agri-StartUps.

This is the only Lok Sabha Constituency, said Dr Jitendra Singh, which got three centrally-funded medical colleges, two passport offices, world’s highest railway bridge, Asia’s longest road tunnel from Chenani to Nashri called Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel, North India’s first Industrial Biotech Park, North India’s first cable free bridge Atal Setu at Basohli, nearly 4 to 5 Hydro power projects in Kishtwar making it India’s power hub.

The Udhampur-Kathua-Doda constituency has Shahpur-Kandi National Irrigation project, longest express corridor from Katra to Delhi, two – instead of one – Vande Bharat Express trains on the same route of Katra to Delhi, nearly 200 bridges and small bridges, he said , adding that district Udhampur has been declared as India’s top three districts in PMGSY Roads.

While Manser lake has been included in the Government of India’s Swarajya Plan, Mantalai, which was left in ruins previously, has been revived as a state-of-the-art wellness centre, he stated.