ET World Leaders Forum 2026: Our reform express will move forward at even greater speed, says PM Modi

World Leaders Forum–this prestigious platform, all the well-known stalwarts of the world of business and industry, policy makers, other dignitaries, ladies and gentlemen:

It is very natural to feel happy being among you all. This year the summit’s focus is on Shared Future. In the past few years the world has seen many ups and downs. These experiences have made one thing very clear:

whether one likes it or not, the future of every country is interconnected. Nothing is possible in isolation. That is why this theme of Shared Futures has become even more relevant today. And India has always carried this spirit. During its G20 presidency, India’s guiding mantra was One Earth, One Family, One Future. The spirit of a shared future, and the sense of responsibility that comes with it, provides solutions to many of the problems of the 21st century world.


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Today there are many concerns about growth in the world. In recent times, the world has seen a very frightening form. Resources are being weaponised. An atmosphere of distrust is bringing many new challenges for the world. But even in such times, the world sees India as a bright spot of growth and hope. In the last 10-12 years, India has lifted 250 million people out of poverty. Not only that, if we talk about the coming days, the IMF forecast is that India will remain the fastest growing major economy in the world. And India is continuously taking steps that are accelerating its development.

Just last week, on August 15, from the Red Fort, I spoke about the seven streams of seven strengths. Manufacturing, technology and innovation, food processing, green and blue economy– I spoke of seven sectors on which India is highly focused today. And that is why India is carrying out next generation reforms at the policy level, to secure our future. Reforms in governance, reforms for ease of living. Last time when I connected with you through this very platform, I had said then too–these reforms are not a compulsion for us. They are our commitment, they are our conviction.

In 2014, when our government was formed, since then reforms have changed the direction and condition of the country. I want to give you a very interesting example of this. Perhaps hardly anyone here knows about PLP. So many media stalwarts are sitting here–do you know PLP? You will be surprised to hear. PLP means Production-Linked Punishment. No one knows about this. Another term you surely have heard–PLI. It means Production-Linked Incentive.

These two terms define two different time periods of India. Nowadays it is the age of explainers, so let me explain to you. The young generation will be shocked to hear that there was a time in our country when if any company produced more than the fixed limit, it was punished. This was the PLP–Production Linked Punishment–model of the earlier licence raj governments. There were even examples that if a factory, seeing higher demand, produced more, it was sent a notice. The company would destroy its own product instead of selling it in the market.

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Today those who mock Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign– their forefathers’ thinking was exactly this: PLP, or Production-Linked Punishment. Behind such actions was a particular distorted mentality. People with such mentality always wanted shortages of essential goods to continue. Keeping citizens in deprivation was their policy. They wanted people to fold hands before them, to beg–you understand whom I am talking about. Then, they would act as if they were doing a favour. That was the way of those governments, and that is why they followed the PLP model. You can imagine, by doing this they strangled the basic principle of employment generation. The surprising thing is–their courtiers, I repeat, their courtiers, never raised a voice against it.

Every reform begins with reforming your way of thinking, your mental framework, the range in which you work. Where earlier increasing production brought punishment, today our government gives incentive for increasing production. Today, the success of the PLI scheme is being seen by the world. Just because of this one scheme–I am not talking of all schemes, only one–actual investment of about Rs 2.5 lakh crore has taken place. More than Rs 22 lakh crore of production and sales have happened. More than Rs 15 lakh crore of exports have taken place. More than 14 lakh direct and indirect jobs have been created. And I remind you again–these figures are only of one scheme. Think about it: the punishment model of the earlier licence raj governments increased unemployment, while today our incentive model is creating lakhs of new jobs.

Today, in India, this rapid development, these rapid reforms are happening because–as Satyan (Times Internet chairman) just mentioned–there is political stability, there is continuity in our policy. Earlier, those who talked about reforms in the country would make announcements, but later forget them. But we created a clear road map for reforms. The main direction of this road map has been - reforms at the level of governance! For this, today in 21st century India, we are not just changing regulations, we are changing the entire philosophy of regulation. Earlier the approach of regulations was: “Prohibited unless permitted.” That is, until the government gave permission, you could not do that work. We are changing this approach to “permitted unless prohibited.” That is, for work that the law has not explicitly forbidden, there should be no need for permission at every step. Behind this thinking is something very simple -- the basis of the relationship between the government and citizen should be trust, not suspicion.

This thinking is also visible in the Jan Vishwas Bill. I believe it is not right to consider every procedural mistake a criminal offence. That is why many offences have been decriminalised. In many cases, instead of jail, only financial penalty has been provided. In the relationship between the government and enterprise, we are advancing this same reform mindset. In recent years, more than 40,000 compliances have been removed. More than 1,500 old and useless laws have been abolished. When you look at all these reforms together, you realise how much burden has been reduced for our industries and businesses.

We are continuously working on this process of governance reforms. In the recent monsoon session of parliament, we passed the Bankers’ Book Evidence Bill. That too when the Opposition had created continuous disruption. We did not allow the work of serving the nation to stop. This law has replaced the 19th century English law. Now, the acceptability of banks’ digital records has been given legal recognition. This will reduce legal complications, bring transparency in the system and increase ease of doing business.

One meaning of reform in governance is also that systems should be built with sensitivity toward every human life and its time. I will give the example of railways. In our railways too, work has been done with this approach. Today, more than 6,500 railway stations have electronic interlocking arrangements. More than 10,000 level-crossing gates have been connected with interlocking. This has greatly reduced the possibility of accidents due to human error.

When our government came in 2014, there were about 9,000 unmanned crossings. Removing them was no rocket science. Thousands of people lost their lives, but earlier governments did not care much. We, in mission mode, in the past 10 years, eliminated these unmanned crossings. We also increased the speed of building road overbridges and underbridges. The result of this is that compared to before 2014, the number of train accidents has reduced by up to 90%. Twelve years ago, about 150 rail accidents used to happen in a year. This has been reduced to 15-20. We are continuously trying to reduce it further. Cleanliness in Railways is also a big example of governance reform. There was a time when filth and human waste on railway tracks used to be a big problem.

Today the situation has completely changed. Before 2014, about 12,000 bio toilets had been installed in our trains. After 2014, more than 360,000 bio toilets have been installed in the trains. This change is not just about cleanliness, it is a new model of governance in the direction of dignity of passengers, cleanliness, and building a modern India. It is also a campaign to give a better experience to crores of passengers.

Another measure of the quality of governance is time. A project that starts should be completed on time. And the service that people receive should also meet the test of time. The Delhi–Meerut Namo Bharat Rapid Rail System is a very good example of this. On this corridor, trains are running at a speed of 160 kmph. This could never have been imagined in our country before. So far, more than 40 million passengers have travelled in it. There is another important factor which is not discussed –the punctuality of the Delhi–Meerut Namo Bharat Rapid Rail is 99.9%. Otherwise, if late, for everything we used to say “this is Indian time”. Times have changed. I mention these small things so that we realise how broad and extensive the work is.

Similarly, the punctuality of the Delhi Metro–it is 99.9%. This punctuality is almost equal to metros of cities like New York, Hong Kong and Paris. This is not just the story of a metro and rapid rail running on time. This is the identity of India changing with time. I know that still–and I am not someone who sits satisfied with just this –in this direction we have much to do, much remains. But we are continuously doing it. A beginning has been made, and this beginning is commendable.

Another major dimension of our reforms road map is reforms at the policy level! Today we are making policies that are pro people, pro growth, pro development. Policies should be according to the needs of the country and its people, not that policies are made and the country is forced to run according to them. I want to give you another interesting example. Until a few years ago, even making a map of the country was illegal, you could go to jail. Without permission you could not even do mapping work in the country.

Think about it–foreign satellite technology could map any corner of India, but in India, Indians were prohibited from making a map of India. In today’s era of technology, just this one restriction could have killed so many startups! So many ideas could have been deprived of implementation! We changed this system too. We deregulated geospatial data, and today geospatial data has become the foundation of many startups.

Today you are continuously seeing the growing utility of drones. In agriculture, in defence, in delivery, in shooting, in content creation–all this would not have been possible if the government had not carried out reforms in the rules related to it. Earlier, drone flying in the country was completely bound in rules and restrictions. We freed it from those restrictions, and today India’s drone industry is moving forward with an unprecedented flight.

Earlier, the thinking of the governments regarding border areas was that if roads and infrastructure increased at the border, the enemy could also benefit from it. We changed this thinking. We said, border infrastructure is not a weakness, it is the strength of the nation. And that is why today the network of roads, bridges and tunnels in border areas is rapidly increasing. In 2024 and 2025 alone, 250 infrastructure projects of BRO have been dedicated to the nation. When the thinking changed, the picture of border infrastructure also changed.

There is also an example of nuclear reforms. At a time when development was completely energy dependent, because of restrictions and prohibitions, the country was not able to use its nuclear potential. Through the SHANTI Bill we carried out a major reform in this too. Today, in India the path has been opened for the private sector in nuclear energy. Similarly, we carried out a major policy reform in the defence sector. The system that had been running for 200 years, we changed it by merging more than 40 ordnance factories into 7 factories. And we are seeing its results. Today, India is becoming self reliant even for its defence needs, and compared to 2014, our defence exports have increased 55 times.

That is why, many times reforms blend into our lives in such a way that we do not even notice them. Think about how your ordinary day passes today. You wake up in the morning, order household items on your phone, and by the time you are ready for office, all that stuff has reached your home. From the street vendor in your lane to the showroom of your car, all your payments are done just by scanning a QR code. If your daughter is studying in another city, you can send her money by phone, and that money reaches her within seconds. Many times your daughter even shares a QR saying, “Papa Maa, I bought this dress, please make the payment” and you get her shopping done while sitting at home. These things are remarkable, but now they do not surprise the people of India. When outsiders come, they are astonished–“Oh, it happens like this.” For the people of India, it has become routine. It has become part of the life of the ordinary citizen of India.

Think–before 2014, how many of these things were possible? In the past 10–12 years, the reforms India has carried out related to ease of living have changed people’s lives–especially the lives of our middle-class–in a way that is still only a dream in many developed countries. Today the cheapest data in the world is in India. We are making cheap and good smartphones. Just now Satyan (Gajwani) described it. India is among the countries carrying out the fastest 5G rollouts in the world. We linked Aadhaar with banking, mobile connectivity, and services, making e-KYC and digital authentication possible. Today, if you want to open a bank account, you don’t even need to go to the bank. The government has brought the bank to you. Whether it is paying a bill, booking a ticket, there is no need to go to a government office–all this work happens online. Filing income-tax has become easier. A system has been created where maximum information in the form is already filled. You verify this information, add what you need, and submit–your work is done! Earlier refunds used to take months to arrive, now they come in just a few days.

Today, with the help of eSanjeevani- –perhaps it is still discussed very little- –people in distant villages can directly consult doctors from anywhere. For those who had to travel many kilometers to reach a hospital, today the doctor is available at home, on their screen. And this figure will astonish you–showing how India has adapted technology, how it has simplified the life of an ordinary person. So far, under eSanjeevani, nearly 500 million tele-consultations have taken place.

Today, in India, the travel experience is changing, the journeys of citizens have completely changed. It is difficult to find a person in this hall who has not used DigiYatra at the airport. Similarly, nowadays much work is happening seamlessly. FastTags on highways help you pay tolls without stopping. This is the true meaning of ease of living. Time is being saved, life is becoming easier, and crores of people can focus on their progress.

In politics, often decisions become headlines whose life is just 24 hours. Earlier governments adopted the formula of making announcements with elections in view. But such announcements did not change the country. The decisions that change the country are those whose impact is visible on the ground, and are taken keeping both the present and the future in mind.

The PM KUSUM scheme and the PM SuryaGhar Free Electricity scheme are unique examples of this. Through the KUSUM scheme, farmers have been freed from the worry of electricity. And through the SuryaGhar scheme, the middle-class has benefited greatly. I know that if I had announced that from today electricity is free for millions of families, all the media, all the newspapers would have flashed big headlines saying “Modiji announced free electricity today.” But we started work with a different approach. We resolved to raise a sun on the roof of every house. And to day more than 5 million families in the country are connected with the PM SuryaGhar Free Electricity scheme.

The government has given more than Rs 22,000 crore to these families to install solar systems on their roofs to produce solar power. Now, these families are selling extra electricity to the grid and earning money. Their own bill has become zero, and they have started earning too. This scheme is also expanding people’s dreams. With electricity bills reduced, people are now buying things like refrigerators, coolers, washing machines, TVs. Now, there is no fear that milk will spoil because of power cuts. Schoolchildren can sleep peacefully at night. I say again, whether elections happen or not, SuryaGhar and its light will remain. The benefit of the plant will continue to reach families for years.

In the coming time, ease of living and ease of doing business will expand further. For the youth of the country, for women power, for farmers, for the poor and the middle-class, our government will continue to work. Our reform express will move forward at even greater speed. To fulfill the goal of a developed India, we will continue to work with full commitment.

For me, if India’s future is secured, then from this very land great work will be done to bring stability to the world’s future too. With this confidence, the more stable India becomes, the more secure India’s future becomes, the strength to give the world a sense of security will arise from here. With this capability, with this resolve, once again I heartily thank the entire team of The Economic Times for inviting me to today’s programme. Vande Mataram!