New railway philosophy lifeline to new India: PM

Following the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high-speed rail project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the "new railway philosophy" will be the lifeline to a new India.

"This is not just the start of a high speed rail," Modi said in a joint address to the media with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the 12th annual bilateral summit between India and Japan here.

"Keeping in mind our needs in the future, I believe this new railway philosophy will be the lifeline to a new India," he said. "India's continuing development has now been linked to high speed."

Stating that the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan is not limited to bilateral and regional issues, Modi said that the two countries cooperate on global issues as well.

He also thanked the people and parliament of Japan for ratifying the civil nuclear agreement that was signed during his visit to that country.

"This will open a new chapter in our cooperation on clean energy and climate change," he said

The Indian Prime Minister also said that Japan invested $4.7 billion in 2016-17, an 80 per cent rise from the previous year.

"This makes Japan the third largest investor in India," he said.

"This indicates that in the times to come, along with increasing business between India and Japan, people-to-people ties will also rise."

Modi said that given the increasing Japanese expatriate population in India, India Post and Japan Post will start a "Cool Box Service" so that these people can directly get their favourite food from Japan.

Stating that ease of doing business, Skill India, taxation reform and Make in India are transforming India rapidly, he said these offer immense opportunities to Japanese businesses.

"I am happy that many Japanese companies are taking part in our flagship national programmes," he said.

On his part, Abe said that India, Japan and the US conducted the joint maritime exercise Malabar for the first time this year based on the strong ties of trust between Modi and US President Donald Trump.

"It will further deepen cooperation between India, Japan and the US," he said.

India and Japan signed 15 agreements across a range of sectors, including in the areas of disaster management, skills development, connectivity and investments, following Thursday's summit.

Earlier in the day, Modi and Abe participated in the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high-speed rail project in Ahmedabad.

--IANS

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