English rendering of PM’s speech at the NDTV World Summit 2025 in New Delhi

Prime Minister's Office English rendering of PM’s speech at the NDTV World Summit 2025 in New Delhi Posted On: 17 OCT 2025 11:03PM by PIB Delhi Her Excellency Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Harini Amarasuriya ji, His Excellency Former Prime Minister of Australia, My Friend Tony Abbott ji, His Excellency Former Prime Minister of UK Rishi Sunak ji, Distinguished Guest, ladies and gentlemen, Namaskar! It is the time of festivals. I wish you all a very happy Diwali. The NDTV World Summit is taking place in this atmosphere of enthusiasm, and you have chosen a very important theme for this session: Unstoppable Bharat. Indeed, India is in no mood to stop today. We will neither stop nor pause. We 140 crore countrymen will move forward rapidly together. Friends, Today, when the world is facing significant roadblocks and speed-breakers, the discussion of Unstoppable Bharat is quite natural. I try to put it in the context of the situation eleven years ago and the present. You remember, what issues were discussed in such summits before 2014. What used to be the headlines, what topics were discussed in conferences in the streets and neighborhoods, you will definitely remember all this, then you will notice, the discussion used to be how India will face the global headwinds? How would India emerge from the Fragile Five? How long would India remain in policy paralysis? When will the big scams in India stop? Friends, At that time, there were many questions about women's safety. There were revelations about how the terrorist sleeper cells were out of control. Songs like “ ” ("Inflation is a witch and eats away") were prevalent. Now you have a clear picture of what was happening before 2014. Back then, the people of the country, and the world, believed that India, entangled in so many crises, would never be able to emerge from them. But in the last eleven years, India has dispelled every apprehension. It has overcome every challenge. Today, India has emerged from the Fragile Five and become one of the top five economies. Today inflation is below 2 percent and the growth rate is more than 7 percent. Today, from chips to ships, self-reliant India is an India full of self-confidence. Now India does not remain silent after terrorist attacks, India gives a befitting reply by carrying out surgical strikes, air strikes and Operation Sindoor. Friends, Think back to the time of Covid, when the world was living under the shadow of life and death. When the world was wondering how a country with such a large population would survive such a huge crisis and people felt that the world would sink because of India. Various speculations were being made. But India proved every speculation wrong. We fought back; we quickly developed our own vaccine. We administered vaccines in record time and after coming out of such a big crisis, we became the fastest growing major economy. Friends, The impact of Corona had not yet ended when conflicts started emerging in different parts of the world. News of the war started appearing in the headlines. Now once again the question arose as to what would happen to India's growth and even in such a time of crisis, India once again proved all the speculations wrong. India continued to progress by becoming the Fastest Growing Major Economy. India's average growth in the last three years has been 7.8 percent. This is unprecedented and unexpected. Just two days ago, the merchandise export figures came out; India's merchandise exports have increased by about 7 percent compared to last year.Last year, India exported agriculture worth about Rs 4.5 lakh crore. Amidst unstable ratings of many countries, S&P has upgraded India's credit rating after 17 years. IMF has also upwardly revised India's growth. Just a few days ago, Google has announced a huge investment of 15 billion dollars in India's AI space. Today, huge investments are also being made in the field of green energy semiconductors. Friends, Today India's growth is shaping global opportunities and I am saying this with great responsibility. The recently signed EFTA Trade Agreement is a great example of this. European countries have committed to invest 100 billion dollars in India. This will create a large number of jobs in India. Just a few days ago, my friend Starmer, the UK Prime Minister, visited India with his largest business delegation, which shows that the world is looking with great hope at the vast opportunities India holds for itself. Today, our trade with the G7 countries has increased by more than 60 percent. Today the whole world is looking at India as a reliable, responsible and resilient partner. From electronics to pharma, from automobile to mobile manufacturing, a wave of investment is coming to India. This investment is helping to make India a nerve center of the global supply chain. Friends, In this summit, you are discussing the topic of Edge of the Unknown. For the world, Edge of the Unknown may be an uncertain thing, but for India, it is a gateway to opportunities. For ages, India has shown the courage to tread uncharted paths. Our saints, our scientists, our sailors have always shown that the "first step" is the beginning of change. Whether it is technology, the need for a corona vaccine, skilled manpower, fintech, or the green energy sector, we have transformed every risk into reform, every reform into resilience, and every resilience into revolution. Recently, the IMF Chief said that he is very excited by the boldness of reforms in India. He also gave an example, and you may know that a reform once took place in India. An ecosystem keeps singing its songs a lot. Our friends are laughing there, but that was due to compulsion, and that compulsion was also from the IMF. Today, reforms are taking place due to conviction, and the same IMF is saying that they are noticing India's boldness in reform. The IMF chief also gave an example: everyone was saying that providing digital identity on a mass level is not possible. But India proved everyone wrong. Today, fifty percent of the world's real-time digital transactions in the world of FinTech take place in India, 50 percent! India's UPI is dominating the global digital payments system. This means that exceeding every prediction, every assessment, has become India's temperament today. I didn't use the word "nature," I said "temperament," and since Modi is here, he speaks of temperament. And that's why India (Bharat) is unstoppable. Friends, The real strength of the country's achievements comes from its people and the people of the country are able to use their potential properly only when there is no pressure or interference of the government in their lives. Where there is more governmentalization, there will be more brakes and where there is more democratization, there will be more speed. Unfortunately, the Congress party, which ruled the country for 60 years, always emphasized the governmentalization of policy and process. Whereas in the last 11 years we have worked towards democratization of policy and process. This is also a major reason behind Unstoppable Bharat. Take the example of banking. What was the reason behind the nationalization of banks by Indira Gandhi in the decade of 1960? It was said that the nationalization was done to provide banking facilities to the poor, farmers, laborers, that is, the common people of the country. This was the reasoning given. Whereas in reality what did Congress do, what did the governments do? Banks were further distanced from the people of the country; the distance was increased. The poor were afraid to even go to the doors of banks. When our government was formed in 2014, more than half of the country's population did not even have a bank account. And this was not just a problem of not having a bank account. This meant that a large section of the country's population was deprived of the benefits of banking. They were forced to pay high interest rates in the market and mortgage their homes and land when needed. Friends, It was essential to free the country from this government-controlled state, and we have accomplished that. We democratized the banking sector and reformed it. We opened more than 50 crore Jan Dhan accounts on mission mode, that is, the total of all the accounts opened in the entire world is on one side and the total ofIndia alone is on the other side, so much work was done. Today, every village in the country has some kind of banking touchpoint. Digital transactions have made India one of the most financially inclusive countries in the world. The Congress government's rule created a mountain of NPAs in banks. The BJP's democratization has led to record profits for banks. Over the past 11 years, loans worth lakhs of crores of rupees have been given to women self-help groups, small farmers, livestock farmers, fishermen, street vendors, and Vishwakarma friends, all without bank guarantees. Friends, I will also give you the example of petrol and gas sector. What was the situation before 2014, when the idea of nationalization was dominant? You will be shocked to hear that the Congress government was preparing to close petrol pumps between 8 pm and 8 am to avoid increasing subsidies on petrol and diesel. Tell me! Hey brother, he will fill it at seven o'clock! What's the situation today? Today, petrol pumps remain open 24 hours a day, and we're making unprecedented investments in alternative fuels and electric mobility. Friends, During the Congress regime, even to get a gas connection, one had to get letters written from the MPs. A Member of Parliament used to get 25 coupons in a year and he used to give 25 coupons to the people in his area for gas connections. So, people used to stand in line at his house, saying, give me a gas coupon, this was the situation. And you will be surprised, take out the newspapers of 2013, Congress was making a strategy to compete with Modi in 2014. They didn't know me well then, and they probably don't even now. So, their discussion was about what promise to make to the public, so the discussion was whether to give 6 cylinders or 9 cylinders per year, this was being discussed. That means the system was dominated by governmentalization to such an extent. Now what did we do after coming here? We have provided free gas connections to more than 10 crore poor families who had never even dreamt of this facility. When gas cylinders used to come to the village, the common man used to believe that it was for the rich, for the big people, they could have gas in their houses, but not in the houses of the poor. We reversed this situation, gas stoves reached 10 crore homes. This is the democratization of the system, and this is the true spirit of the Constitution. Friends, In that era of nationalization thinking, Congress used to sleep peacefully after locking our government companies, our PSUs. It's sinking, lock it, it's sinking, lock it. Congress used to think that why should we work so hard, if it sinks then it will sink, it will die a natural death, what will we lose from our pocket, this was the thinking. We changed this thinking also and see today, be it LIC, SBI or our big PSUs, all of them are making new records of profits. Friends, When government policies are based on democratization rather than governmentalization, the morale of the countrymen is high. With this thinking of governmentalization, Congress kept on saying remove poverty, remove poverty, you must have seen it in every election, listen to all the speeches of this family from the Red Fort, whoever went to the Red Fort to hoist the flag from this family, there was no leader from the first to the last, who did not give a speech on poverty. You can listen to all these speeches on YouTube, but poverty hasn't diminished. Our democratization approach has lifted 25 crore poor people out of poverty in the last 11 years, and that is why the nation trusts us, and that is why India is unstoppable. Friends, Today in India there is a government dedicated to serving the poor and the deprived. We give priority to the backward classes. We are working with full sensitivity to improve their lives. Often, this issue is overlooked in the larger discussions. Let me give you an example. Recently there was talk that BSNL has launched its Made in India 4G stack. And friends, I want to say that this is really a huge success for the country. Today we can proudly say that India is among the top 5 countries in the world that have a 4G stack ready in their country. India has heard 2G, 2G, 2G because all the headlines are filled with, "This happened in 2G, that happened in 2G." Now I am talking about4G, so it takes some time, I am getting tired of explaining it. BSNL, the government company that Congress left no stone unturned to destroy, is now achieving new achievements. But friends, This is just one aspect of the country's success. The other side of this is that on the same day this 4G stack was launched, BSNL started about one lakh 4G mobile towers and what was the result of this? This has brought high-speed internet service to lakhs of people living in remote forests and mountainous areas, where high- speed internet had not been accessible until now. Friends, Now let me tell you another surprising thing. We keep hearing about 2G, 4G, 6G, etc., then we see the world around us, we think about something else and after thinking, we try to do something new. And today I want to present before you a third aspect of this success of the country and till now the media has not paid attention to that thing. Well, there are many things, in my account they remain far behind. When such facilities reach remote areas, how the lives of the people in those areas change. You might have heard about e-Sanjeevani. Let me give the example of this e-Sanjeevani. Suppose there is a family living somewhere in the remote forests, one of whose members is ill and is suffering from the illness somewhere on the hills, somewhere in the forests. Now due to bad weather, they are unable to take their sick family member to the doctor. What will they do then? In such a situation, e-Sanjeevani service, a service based on high-speed connectivity, is helping them. Friends, The patient connects with the doctor through the e-Sanjeevani app on his phone and gets the facility of consultation with a specialist doctor. NDTV viewers will be happy to know that till now 42 crore people have taken OPD consultation through e-Sanjeevani. That means 4G, 2G is not just a facility, it is emerging as a new force in life and today when I am talking to you, from morning till evening more than 1 lakh people of the country have got help on e-Sanjeevani. I am telling you about 12 hours. E-Sanjeevani is not just a facility; it is a reassurance that they will get immediate help in case of crisis. This is an example of the wonders of democratization in the system! Friends, A sensitive government, a government dedicated to democracy, a government dedicated to the Constitution, takes such decisions and makes such policies. Our emphasis is on making people's lives easier and increasing people's savings. For example, 1 GB of data used to cost Rs. 300, and now it costs Rs. 10. This means that thousands of rupees are being saved in the pocket of every Indian every year. Poor patients have saved Rs 1.25 lakh crore through Ayushman Bharat scheme. Medicines are available at 80 percent discount at PM Jan Aushadhi Centers. Due to this, people have saved around Rs 40 thousand crores. Due to reduction in the prices of heart stents, the poor and middle class are saving Rs 12 thousand crore annually. Friends, We have also given direct benefits to honest taxpayers. Be it income tax or GST, there has been a huge reduction. This year, the tax on incomes of up to Rs 12 lakh has been reduced to zero. And the GST Savings Festival is currently in full swing. That means I am seeing pictures of markets everywhere these days, if you look at Google then why everywhere? It is the GST savings festival that has created this situation. Nowadays we are seeing that all previous sales records are being broken. With these two steps of Income Tax and GST, the countrymen are sure to save around Rs 2.5 lakh crore in a year. Friends, In recent times, the country and the world have discussed Operation Sindoor a lot. Recently, our friend Rahul ji also talked about Operation Sindoor in great detail. He belongs to an Army family, so his passion for it is natural. Those things run in his veins. He has praised it with pride and the country and the world are also doing the same. But today I want to take you to another topic, which is not only important in terms of the security of the country, it is also related to the future of my youth. This topic concerns Naxalism, and I believe that the term Naxalism has been coined by such people. In reality, it is about Maoist terror. Today, I want totell you the story of this Maoist terror. The ecosystem of urban Naxals during the Congress rule, these urban Naxals, were dominant in a way, they are still dominant, they used to carry out heavy censorship to ensure that no incident of Maoist terror reaches the people of the country, there used to be so much discussion about terrorism in our country. There used to be debates on Article 370. But the urban Naxals who had flourished in our cities during the Congress rule, who had taken over such institutions, used to cover up Maoist terror and kept the country in the dark. Just a few days ago, many victims of Maoist terror came to Delhi; this is a very painful thing. They had come in large numbers, some were missing legs, some were missing hands, some were missing eyes. Some body parts were missing. These were the victims of Maoist terror. The poor, tribals, brothers and sisters of the village, sons of farmers, mothers and sisters, many had their legs amputated, they had come to Delhi, stayed for seven days. With folded hands they were asking to convey their message to the people of India. They held a press conference, none of you might have seen or heard it, these contractors of Maoist terror who are sitting here, did not even let the story of the pain of the victims of that oppression reach the people of India. The Congress ecosystem did not even allow it to be discussed. Friends, The situation was such that nearly every major state in the country was in the grip of Naxalite violence and Maoist terror. The Constitution was in effect in the rest of the country, but in the Red Corridor, no one dared to mention it. And I say with great responsibility that those who dance around with the Constitution on their heads still work day and night to protect these Maoist terrorists, who do not believe in the Constitution. Friends, The government was elected, but it had no recognition in the Red Corridor. As evening fell, it became difficult to leave the house. Those who provided security to the public also had to move with security. Friends, In the last 50-55 years, thousands of people were killed due to this Maoist terror, many security personnel became victims of Maoist terror, we lost so many young people, these Naxalites, these Maoist terrorists did not allow schools to be built in the area, did not allow hospitals to be built, even if there was a hospital, they did not allow doctors to enter. Those which were still standing were also blown up with bombs. For decades, a large part of the country, a very large population remained deprived of the light of development. Our tribal brothers and sisters, Dalit brothers and sisters, and poor people had to suffer huge losses due to this. Friends, Maoist terrorism is a grave injustice to the youth of the country, a grave sin. I could not leave the youth of the country in this condition, I felt uneasy and was sitting with my mouth shut. Today, for the first time, I am expressing my pain to you. I know the mothers who have lost their sons; those mothers had certain expectations and hopes from their sons. Either they got trapped in the lies of the Maoist terrorists or they became victims of Maoist terror and hence, after 2014, our government tried with full sensitivity to bring the misguided youth into the mainstream and I am telling this to the countrymen for the first time today, the countrymen will be satisfied, the countrymen will bless us, the mothers who have lost their sons, those mothers will bless us, they will bless the power of the country and today the country is seeing its results. Till 11 years ago, more than 125 districts of the country were affected by Maoist terror. And friends, Today, this number has shrunk to just 11 districts. You know how much effort had to be put into this effort, and even among those 11, only three districts remain that are most vulnerable to Maoist terror. Friends, Thousands of Naxalites have laid down their arms in the last decade. I will give you the figures of the last 75 hours, only seventy-five hours. I know this is not the media's menu, but it is a matter of great satisfaction in my life that in these 75 hours, 303 Naxalites have surrendered. Those who once wielded 3 naught 3, today they have surrendered 3 naught 3. And these are not ordinary Naxalites, some had a reward of 1 crore, some had a reward of 15 lakh, some had a reward of 5 lakh and all of them had rewards announced in their names. And these are no ordinary Naxalites; some carried a bounty of 1 crore rupees, some 15 lakh rupees, some 5lakh rupees, and all of them had bounties announced against them. A large quantity of weapons has also been seized from these Naxalites. All these people have given up guns and bombs and are ready to embrace the Constitution of India and when there is a government completely dedicated to the Constitution, then even a person who has gone on the wrong path returns and sets his eyes on that Constitution. Now they are coming into the mainstream of development. And these people are admitting that they were on the wrong path. Five decades have passed, they have spent their youth, but the change they had hoped for has not come. Now they will move forward with faith in the Indian Constitution. Friends, There used to be media headlines, this happened in Bastar of Chhattisgarh, that happened, an entire bus was blown up, so many security personnel were killed, Bastar used to be the stronghold of Maoist terrorists, Naxalites and now today I give the example of the same Bastar, tribal youth organize Bastar Olympics and lakhs of youth are coming to Bastar Olympics and showing their strength in the sports field, this is the change. Friends, This time, Diwali celebrations in areas free from Maoist terror are going to be even more vibrant. It has been 50-55 years since they had not seen Diwali, now they will see Diwali and I am sure friends, our hard work will bear fruit and the lamps of happiness will be lit there too. And today, I assure my countrymen and NDTV viewers that the day is not far off when the country will be completely free from Naxalism and Maoist terror, and this too is Modi's guarantee. Friends, Our journey towards a developed India is not just a journey of growth. Where development and dignity go hand in hand, where there are speed and dignity for citizens, where the objective of innovation is not just efficiency but also empathy and compassion. We are moving forward with this vision. And events like the NDTV World Summit play a huge role in advancing this vision. I express my gratitude to NDTV for inviting me to speak for the nation. I wish you all the best for this event. And I also wish you all the best for the Diwali celebrations. Thank you very much! **** MJPS/VJ/SS (Release ID: 2180611)