Indepedence Day 2023: 15 key takeaways from PM Modi's speech at Red Fort

As India celebrates its 77th Independence Day, Narendra Modi on Tuesday vowed to come back as the Prime Minister of India next year and his government would present a report on the achievements of the country from the Red Fort on 15 August 2023. “Agli baar, 15 August ko, isi lal kile se mai aapko desh ki uplabdhiyan, aapke samarthya, aapke sankalp, usse hui pragati, uski jo safalata hai, uske gaurav gaan, usse bhi adhik atmavisvas ke samne, aapke samne main prastut karunga. (Next August 15, from the same Red Fort, I will present in front of you the achievements of the country; your capacity, and the progress achieved through that; the success, and its praise; and that too with more confidence),” PM Modi said. During his tenth Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister spoke for nearly 90 minutes on several topics. Through his Independence Day speech, PM Modi urged fellow citizens not to lose the opportunity to realise the country’s potential as the decisions and sacrifices made in this period will impact the country for the next 1000 years. Here are 15 key takeaways from PM Modi’s Independence Day 2023 speech: 1 - “It is Modi’s guarantee that India will be among the top three economies in the world in the next 5 years” 2 - Democracy affected by ills of nepotism; dynastic parties work with the mantra of ‘party of family, by family and for family’ 3 - Politics of appeasement has inflicted the most harm on social justice; the country has to resolve to not tolerate corruption in any form 4 - Corruption has badly affected India’s capability; it is Modi’s life-long commitment to keep fighting against corruption 5 - My government weeded out 10 crore fake beneficiaries of welfare schemes; the seizure of ill-gotten assets rose by 20 times 6 - PM Modi appealed for peace in Manipur. He said: “The country stands with the people of Manipur…Resolution can be found through peace only. The Centre and the State government are making all efforts to find a resolution." Shedding light on the unity in diversity in India, the Prime Minister said: “We are so united that if there is a problem in Manipur, Maharashtra feels the pain” 7 - “This time, natural calamity has created unimaginable crises in several parts of the country. I express my sympathies to all families who faced this…." 8 - Speaking on inflation, PM Modi said the world has not been able to completely defeat Covid. Inflation has affected all economies. “We have been striving hard to tackle inflation but I will not rest till my countrymen are happy and not affected by rising expenses" 9 - “India’s capabilities in space technology are rising rapidly. Deep sea mission, modernisation of railways - Vande Bharat, bullet train - we are working on everything. The Internet has reached villages. While we are working on nano urea, we are also focusing on organic farming” 10- The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of “women-led development”. He said, “The one thing that will take the country forward is women-led development. Today, we can proudly say that India has the maximum number of pilots in civil aviation. Women scientists are leading the Chandrayaan mission. The G20 countries are also recognising the importance of women-led development.” PM Modi also said women’s self-help groups will soon get training on the usage of drones 11- “Global experts are saying that India will not stop now, all rating agencies lauding the country” 12- PM Modi said that his government will soon launch a scheme to provide relief in bank loans to those dreaming of their own house in cities 13- ‘We will launch ‘vishvakarma yojana’ with an outlay of Rs 13,000-15,000 crore to help our workers’ 14- “‘Nation First’ is the bedrock of our policies; people formed such government in 2014 and 2019 that gave me strength to pull off reforms” 15- PM also talked about women-led development, and said, “G20 is acknowledging India’s approach of women-led development.” “In the next 25 years we have to move forward with a message of unity, there would be efforts to strengthen the country’s unity,” the PM said.