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- Published: March 3, 2023 17:11
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the post-Budget webinar on ‘Infrastructure and Investment – Improving Logistics Efficiency with PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan’ on Saturday.
It is a part of 12 post-Budget webinars being organized by the government to seek ideas for implementation of the Budgetary announcements. Infrastructure and investment is one of the priority sectors of the Government.
The webinar is being organized by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) as the Lead Ministry, in association with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry as the Co-Lead Ministry. The webinar will be structured in the format of plenary inaugural and concluding sessions and split into three parallel Breakout sessions. The breakout sessions will cover suggestions on Budget announcements related to infrastructure and investment, their implementation and way forward.
According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the three parallel Breakout sessions will be – “Improving Logistics Efficiency via Multi-Modality and Filling Critical Infrastructure Gaps”, anchored by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways; “Planning on PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan”, anchored by the DPIIT and “Infrastructure Development & Investment Opportunities”, which will be anchored by MoRTH.
Infrastructure is an essential component of economic growth and development, as it enables businesses to operate more efficiently and effectively, creates jobs, and improves the quality of life for individuals and communities. Investments in infrastructure have higher multiplier effect on economic growth. The government, in the last few years, has been providing higher budgetary allocation to ensure the creation of world-class infrastructure across the country, the Ministry statement said.
The Union Budget for FY 2023-24 is the reflection of this vision with a significant capital expenditure allocation focused on infrastructure development. Within this outlay, road transport and highways and railways are the key target areas where allocation has increased by 25 per cent and 15 per cent respectively to Rs 2.7 lakh crore and Rs 2.4 Lakh crore respectively.
The significant increase in allocation is expected to enable the government to continue to push execution of previously announced long-term programmes and initiatives, thereby supporting India’s GDP growth amidst global headwinds, the statement said.
Besides Ministers and Secretaries of the concerned central government ministries, a host of stakeholders drawn from States, industry, associations, investment groups, concessionaires etc would attend the webinar and contribute through suggestions for better implementation of the budgetary announcements. The list of speakers has been drawn up from manufacturers, private operators, implementing agencies, NGOs, independent experts etc to share their thoughts on various dimensions of the impact of the Union Budget and discuss their implementation.
The Ministry statement said some of the industry leaders and experts who are likely to address during the event include Dhruv Kotak (MD, JM Baxi Group), R Dinesh (MD, TVS Logistics and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Designate), Ashok Sethi (Chairman, Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd), Manu Bhalla (President, Warehousing Association of India), Ajit Gulabchand (CMD, Hindustan Construction Company Ltd), Davinder Sandhu (Chairman, Primus Partners), Vinayak Pai (MD, Tata Projects), Shashank Srivastava (ED, Maruti Suzuki).
The webinar will be conducted in a virtual mode and invitees will include State government representatives, local body representatives, technical institutions, industry representatives, NGOs, independent experts among others.