Foreign media must tell India story: PMO

 

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister's Office wants deeper engagement and better communications of developments with foreign media particularly The Economist and Financial Times to tell the India story.

This comes after a spate of criticism against the government policies and follows the last meeting of India Inc with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources said top businessmen had told the government that there is a need to sell the India story overseas to attract investment and articulate the reform measures that the government has taken to step up growth. Ministry of external affairs (MEA) and department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) have been asked to take necessary initiatives for this.

The PMO has also spelt out the tasks for all ministries and departments to push investment and growth. For example, DIPP has been asked to develop 100 innovation districts in Mumabi-Pune-Nasik region and developing global excellence in more sectors on the lines of small cars manufacturing in India.

After getting inputs from the top industry leaders, PMO has also asked the land resource department to have a specific project for faster computerization of land records and maps through satellite-based cadastral surveys.

Railways, road transport and shipping ministries have been asked to take steps for faster implementation of infrastructure projects and also to undertake infrastructure development as a separate mission with the focus to reducing domestic transportation cost for industry.

In fact, Narenadra Modi government since its beginning has taken steps to ensure coordinated efforts by all the infrastructure ministries to improve connectivity. Projects such as Bharat Mala and Sagar Mala primarily aims at connecting the hinterland with ports and highways.

India lags behind in ports and logistics infrastructure. Against a share of 9% of railways and 6% of roads in the GDP, the share of ports is only 1%. Moreover, logistics costs make Indian exports incompetitive.