For last few days, the print media and visual media was going gaga over USA President Donald Trump’s visit to India . There were too many speculations about what India is going to gain from this visit. In today’s blog I am not writing about what India gained from visit of USA President, but I am writing about the various comments made during President Trump’s visit and what is the reality about them.
- President Trump said ‘Since the turn of this century the size of India economy has grown by six times- Now let us see what are the facts. As per International Monetary Funds (IMF), in 2000 India’s GDP was $477 billion which by 2019 had risen to $ 2940 billion. This is an increase of over 6.2 times over the period 2000-19. In the process India has become world’s 5th largest economy I 2019.
- It was claimed that ‘In a single decade, India has lifted over 270 million people out of poverty’- what is the fact. According to UN report of 2018, there were 271 million fewer people below the UN defined poverty index in 2016 than 10 years earlier. However the same report notes that despite the gain in reducing poverty, ‘364 million Indians continue to experience acute deprivation in health, nutrition, schooling and sanitation’.
- It was claimed that ‘Under PM Modi, for the first time, every village in India has access to electricity- Now let us see the facts. In 2018 the Indian govt announced that it had reached its target of providing electricity to every Indian village. However it is important that you should know that by this it was meant ‘That govt defines village as fully electrified if 10% of its households, as well as public places such as schools and health centres are connected to the grid. By the time Mr Modi took over office of PM in 2014, 96% of Indian villages have been already electrified. Yes, it was under PM Modi it achieved 100% electrifications of more than 600,000 villages in the country.
- It was claimed that ‘the pace of Highway construction has been doubled since PM Modi took over’. Now what are the facts- It is indeed true that the total length of highways increased significantly after BJP came to power. The govt built 10,000 km of highway in 2018-19, which is more that the double amount built in last year of earlier regime in 2013-14. The govt has set a smaller target of 2019-20, but by Nov 2019 about 6000 km have already been built.
- It was claimed that ‘ 320 million more Indians are right now connected to the internet’. It is not at all clear what internet connections are referred in this claim. As per telecom Regulatory of India (TRAI) there are now more than 6000 million internet subscriber in India. However, you are much more likely to have access to the internet if you happen to live in some city rather than in villages. Problem is more population of India reside in villages than in city. Then there is also a gender disparity, women are 50% less likely to usr internet than men, as per study conducted in 2019.
- It was claimed that ‘ 600 million more people have access to basic sanitation’. In reality after PM Modi launched Swachh Bharat or Clean India mission in Oct 2014, the govt has built toilets for households with no access to basic sanitation facilities under this scheme. As per the latest figures from Dept of Drinking Water & Sanitation more than 100 million toilets have been constructed. But the figure 600 million can not be challenged as every toilet is used by many people.
- It was also claimed that ‘ 70 million more households have access to cooking fuel. The reality is, Cooking gas was provided to poor households under a scheme launched by PM Modi in 2016. Under this scheme, 50 million Liquefied petroleum Gas (LPG) connections were to be provided to families below certain level of income, with additional financial subsidies provided to refill cylinders for three years. According to Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the govt fulfilled its target, and more than 80 million connections are established as of Sep 2019. But there are many households who find it very difficult to refill the cylinder after the expiry of subsidised period, it is basically due to the cost of refilling.
So in fact what was claimed in the speeches during President Trump’s visit to India holds good to maximum extent possible.
Awaiting your views/comments/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
26th Feb 2020