India News | India on Its Way to Become Export Hub: LS Speaker

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) India is on its way to become "a hub of export" as there has been an "extensive progress" in various sectors including defence under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the country, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on Thursday.

Inaugurating the 49th IFTDO World Conference and Exhibition here, he noted that there was need for skilled workforce in view of the emerging technology and their growing use in every sector.

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"For this, our prime minister set the direction of India after 2014 looking at the change taking place in the world. Today, we, our youth, under the leadership of the prime minister have increased the capacity of India through new technology, new workforce and skills", Birla said.

"That's why India has made an extensive progress in various sectors--be it defence, tech, electronics or other sectors--where the country's import used to stand at 90 percent," he said

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He noted that once it was felt India's population was "a curse".

"But, a massive change has taken place in the work culture of our youth and workers today in India," he said, "With its efficient workforce, amazing ability of youth, new technology, India is going to become a big hub of export."

Addressing the gathering, Union Minister Hardeep Puri said the government under leadership of Prime Minister Modi has leveraged technology for revolutionising the way services are delivered to citizens,

"Under the DBT (direct benefit transfer), a staggering more than Rs 2.25 lakh crore were transferred directly into the back accounts of the beneficiaries. It was due to frameworks like the DBT that India was able to successfully support the needy population during the worst pandemic that the world has seen," he added.

He said India did not have vaccine manufacturing capacity when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, and put the blame on the erstwhile Congress led-UPA government.

"I don't want to sound political but the previous government dismantled the public sector vaccine manufacturing capacity in its 10 years term before the Modi government assumed office," he said.

But, India developed indigenous vaccines, he said.

"We have not only vaccinated our own population but also assumed our responsibility as global citizen and made vaccines available in the countries in our neigbourhood and other parts of the world," the minister added.

The International Federation of Training and Development Organisation (IFTDO) World Conference and Exhibition, organised by the Indian society for Training and Development, will conclude on May 21.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)