In his address to over 200 young CEOS at the Champions of Change event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said development needs to be turned into a mass movement across the country and asked chief executive officers to become soldiers for building a modern India. Corporate executives in the event were divided into a total of six groups of around 30-35 each and made suggestions on a range of issues, including providing a universal healthcare cover, using India's coastline as a hub for renewable energy generation, action points on boosting tourism and measures on promoting a less-cash society, among others.
The groups then interacted with senior bureaucrats and ministers over two days and crystallised the talks into actionable points. “I hope the effort of listening to you (CEOs) will bear fruit,” Modi said. He emphasised that “development has to be turned into a mass movement” similar to the way Gandhi converted freedom movement into a mass movement. He suggested that CEOs work on areas that reduce India's dependence on import of various goods, minimise wastage of food and to turn waste into wealth.
There were six topics of discussions, including building a New India by 2022, doubling farmers' incomes, creating cities of tomorrow, taking Make in India forward, reforming financial sector, and building world-class infrastructure. Garima Sahai, co-founder and CEO of Svadha Wash Pvt Ltd, said, “Our healthcare sub groups suggested a transformational idea of providing universal healthcare cover to citizens. Such a cover will be enabled through JAM- Jan Dhan accounts used for insurance coverage, Aadhaar as the medical passport and mobile-enabled cluster based primary/secondary healthcare access.”
Modi said a multi-pronged approach is essential to achieve desired objectives such as doubling of agriculture incomes. Emphasising the importance of food processing, he said lack of infrastructure is leading to huge losses in the agriculture sector.
