Poverty alleviation, green energy to India’s global standing feature in President’s address
1 min read . Updated: 31 Jan 2023, 01:28 PM IST
PremiumThe president outlined India’s growing stature in the international community and India’s growing role in the Shanghai Cooperation Orgations, Quad and the ongoing presidency of G20 for 2023.
New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday addressed the joint sitting of the Parliament ahead of the Budget session. In her address, she spoke about the government’s achievement in terms of accelerating poverty alleviation, focus on the middle class, women empowerment, and manufacturing sector among others.
The address comes in the backdrop of a number of state elections this year and the general elections in 2024. In her first address to a joint sitting of Parliament, the president also outlined India’s growing stature in the international community and India’s growing role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisations, QUAD and the ongoing presidency of G20 for 2023.
Highlighting the government’s focus on corruption and taking a jibe at previous governments, Murmu said: “My government is of the firm opinion that corruption is the biggest enemy of democracy and social justice. Therefore, there has been a relentless fight against corruption in the last few years."
“In the last few years, the Benami Property Act was notified with a view to create a corruption-free ecosystem. The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act was passed to confiscate the properties of criminals who absconded after committing economic offences. An effective system has also been put in place to end the practice of favouritism and corruption in government machinery,“ she said.
She also said that the government is taking steps to honour honest taxpayers.
Outlining the efforts towards women empowerment, the president said: “From education to their career, my government is trying to remove all obstacles for daughters. Through efforts like the construction of separate toilets for girls in the government schools of the country or the scheme related to sanitary pads, the drop-out rate of girls has come down sharply."
She said that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has not only increased the dignity of women, it has also provided them a safe environment.
“For the first time, savings accounts have been opened for the brighter future of crores of daughters across the country under the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana. Many important steps have also been taken for the education of girls in the new National Education Policy."
Murmu also noted that the government has ensured recruitment of women in every sector from mining to forward posts in the army.
“Our daughters are now studying and training in Sainik Schools as well as military academies. It is my government which has increased the maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks."
Talking of the government’s green energy push, she said that the government has increased the solar power capacity by almost 20 times in the last eight years and India currently ranks fourth in the world in renewable energy capacity.
“The country has already achieved the target of making 40 percent of its electricity generation capacity from non-fossil fuel sources, nine years ahead of the target. This success is going to strengthen our resolve to be Net Zero by the year 2070.“
She also mentioned the national green hydrogen mission and said that it would attract investment worth lakhs of crores of rupees in India in the field of green energy. “This will result in reducing our dependence on foreign countries for clean energy and also for energy security."
She said that reducing pollution in cities is also the government’s top priority. “Therefore, work is underway on a very large scale for electric mobility. Under the FAME scheme, more than 7,000 electric buses are being added to public transport by the central government in many cities of the country, including the capital city of Delhi."
