The Prime Minister said Indians have to turn COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity for creating Atmanirbhar Bharat

While addressing the annual plenary session of the ICC, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India is fighting multiple challenges with Covid-19, including floods, locust attack, earthquakes.

He said the contributions made by ICC to develop East and northeast India, especially the manufacturing sector there, are historical.

“We have to turn COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity for creating Atmanirbhar Bharat,” he said.

He said, “We have to take steps to ensure that products which we are forced to import from elsewhere are manufactured in India.”

Recent decisions taken by Centre for farmers had freed agriculture economy from years of slavery, he said.

“We have to revive the manufacturing sector in West Bengal; this is time for bold investments, not conservative decisions,” Modi said.

He said that in the last five to six years India's goal of self-reliance had been paramount in policy, practice; Covid crisis gave lessons on how to speed up efforts.

“People-centric, people-driven and planet-friendly development had become part of our governance,” Modi said.