100-day-old Narendra Modi government plans media blitz to highlight achievements

NEW DELHI: "Economic drive with social change" will be the theme for 100-day old Narendra Modi government and it will be projected through a series of press briefings coupled with a media campaign.

Keen to showcase its "achievements" the government plans to hold a series of ministerial press briefings starting with the finance ministry on Wednesday which is likely to be followed by infrastructure and social ministries.

The government will highlight its efforts in four major spheres: housing for all, infrastructure development including railways, ports and roads, tourism and creation of smart cities through public- private funding. Other focus areas include curbing inflation and introducing schemes for financial inclusion.

"Achche din aa gaye hain (good days are here), Loot rookee hai (Corruption has stopped) and decisions are being taken ... and files are moving. In 100 days this is the major change that this government has brought about," Prakash Javadekar, I&B and environment minister said while responding to a question on the impact of the new regime.

Among the issues that are likely to find prominence in the government's communication in the coming days will be price rise of foodgrains and petrol has been stemmed to a great extent by ensuring that essentials like foodgrains and onions are made available to people. The 'Modi sarkar' will be proudly highlighting its work on cleaning the Ganga including shutting down of 46 polluting industries in different states along the river.

The government has also put in place a real-time mechanism to check pollution levels in the Ganga. Its social agenda includes two significant schemes—Beti bachao, beti padhao and padhe bharat, badhe Bharat---that will focus on correcting the skewed sex ratio and educating the girl child.

One of the significant issues that will be part of the media campaign is the turn-around of the environment ministry. It is no longer a "roadblock ministry" but one where decisions have been decentralized and made transparent whether they be linear projects like transmissions lines, rail, pipeline, defense or border roads projects.

The environment ministry has also created an online clearance system for fast-tracking project. "About 170 cases have been put online and the applicants can check their status on a real time basis," Javadekar said.