PM Modi to hold a review meeting with top officials on the first 100 days of his third term
After a back-breaking election campaign in torrid heat, 45-hour meditation at Vivekananda Memorial and across the board exit polls predicting a massive mandate for his third term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns back to work on Sunday by holding a review meeting with PMO officials.
Before embarking on his mega election campaign, PM Modi had told the top bureaucracy that their homework for the interregnum vacation was to prepare for decisions to be taken in the first 100 days of Modi 3.0. He made it clear to them that all the tough decisions will be made in the first 100 years of his government and he will not wait for the last 100 days before the 2029 elections.
While the bureaucracy has prepared what decisions PM Modi needs to take in the first 100 days, it is also aware that from now on only merit and deliveries will count in appointments to key jobs with the focus on Viksit Bharat vision of the BJP’s tallest leader. In this context, perhaps key changes will be made in August 2024 after the new Cabinet is in position and the Union budget is presented in the first week of July. The first appointments will perhaps be that of Principal Secretary to PM Dr P K Mishra and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, both indispensable to PM Modi for administration and national security-intelligence respectively. Key appointments that need to be done this month are that of new Army Chief and the vital post of Director, Intelligence Bureau.
Since PM Modi’s Viksit Bharat vision is anchored on “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”, the focus of Modi 3.0 will be development of India’s military-industrial complex with priority on self-reliance and domestic manufacturing. There are strong indications that domestic military-civilian manufacturing will be incentivized and preference will be given to Indian platforms and Indian IPs.
The PMO officials have prepared an agenda for the next 100 days after the swearing in of Modi 3.0 with fine tuning being done on the basis of advice of PM Modi.
Politically, the NDA manifesto will be implemented in toto and diplomatically PM Modi will be by far the most senior and most successful leader of the world’s biggest democracy when he attends the G-7 on June 13.