‘India climbed 5 spots in 8 yrs to become 5th largest economy’: PM Modi

India is now the fifth largest economy in the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday, as he stressed that the country was able to rise from the 10th spot in eight years.

Several weeks ago, India had surpassed the United Kingdom to rank fifth on the list. Predictions were then made that the country would seen be climbing to the third spot.

“In the last eight years, India has jumped from the eighth spot to the fifth spot. This has been made possible because in the last seven-eight years, we have removed the obstacles that were coming in the way of the economic growth,” PM Modi said while addressing a virtual event for ‘Rozgar Mela’. Many big global economies, PM Modi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI, are “struggling with inflation, unemployment…side effects of the biggest crisis in 100 years, which can’t just go away in 100 days”. He was referring to coronavirus which brought a huge economic downfall for many nations.

The government’s recruitment drive is targeting over 10 lakh people and 75,000 of them get offer letters on Saturday. “In the coming months, lakhs others would be offered employment opportunities,” PM Modi asserted while also stressing that “self-reliance” is important for growth.

“In 2014, there were only a few start-ups. Now, the figure has passed the 80,000-mark. Indian firms are also becoming increasingly self-reliant. In many sectors, India is on its way to become the global hub,” PM Modi underlined.

Meanwhile, the Congress’s Randeep Surjewala said that the government was pushed into acknowledging the unemployment crisis because of the grand old party’s Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra as he dismissed the Rozgaar Mela as “eventbaazi”.