Some broken, some kept: A look at the promises made by PM Modi on August 15

Will the Modi govt's delivery on the announcements the PM made from the ramparts of the Red Fort see him romp home in the 2019 general elections?

On August 15, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi. This will be his fifth such address after becoming Prime Minister in 2014, and his last before he goes to seek another term in the general elections next year -- if they are held on schedule.

The Independence Day address made by the Prime Minister every year is important not only because of the occasion, but also because it presents the PM a chance to inform the citizens of the state of the nation and provides a glimpse into the government’s thinking going forward. It helps people ascertain the likely direction the government intends to take when it comes to making policies. It is a chance for the PM to provide the reason behind views that the government may hold.

The fifth address by PM Modi will be a good occasion to understand the pitch that his government plans to make in the next elections and also to see how successful it has been in fulfilling the promises made from Red Fort on the previous four occasions.

Here we look at some of the announcements made by Prime Minister Modi in his Independence-Day addresses and how his government has performed with respect to those announcements.

Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana-2014

“I have come here with a pledge to launch a scheme on this festival of Freedom. It will be called 'Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana'. I wish to give the poorest citizens of the country the facility of bank accounts through this yojana.”

The PM launched this scheme of financial inclusion in his first speech on 15 August, 2014. As per official government data, till August 1, 2018, more than 322.5 million Jan-Dhan accounts have been opened, holding Rs 806.75 billion in deposits. 

An overwhelming share of these accounts, 190 million to be precise, have been opened in rural and semi-urban bank branches. As many as 169 million females have opened accounts under the scheme, while another 242.7 million RuPay debit cards have been issued along with these accounts.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha in March this year, Minister of State for Finance, Shiv Pratap Shukla informed the house that 20 per cent of Jan-Dhan accounts (at that time) were lying dormant. He also informed that nearly two per cent of these accounts had been closed since the scheme was launched in 2014. These accounts can only be closed through a request made by the account holder.

Some experts contend that PM Jan-Dhan Yojana is just a modified scheme of the one originally launched in 2012. The 2012 scheme was named Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account. Jan-Dhan scheme is said to be an expanded BSBDA scheme, with additional benefits like accident and life insurance.

Swachh Bharat Mission

In his speech in 2014, the PM informed that a Clean India scheme would be launched on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti later in the year. This was launched on October 2, 2014 with the stated aim of eliminating open defecation in the country by October 2, 2019 (the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi). The target was to build nearly 90 million toilets. 

The scheme was divided into Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural) and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Urban). A sum of Rs 42.6 billion was allocated to SBA (Gramin) in 2014-15 (this was brought down to Rs 28.5 billion in revised estimates). By 2018-19, the total budget for SBM-Rural had risen to Rs 153 billion. 

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan saw the government spend a substantial amount of money on advertisements as well. As per official figures, revealed in RTI, Rs 5.3 billion was spent on publicity in three years since launch in 2014.

As per the Swachh Bharat Mission website, 80 million toilets have been constructed since launch and India is 89.41 per cent open defecation-free. As per reports, there are challenges however. These include non-availability of water. As per an NSSO survey, nearly six out of 10 toilets build under the mission do not have regular water supply, making them unfit for use.

As per a government release from 2014, the SBM is a rechristened and restructured form of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan launched by the UPA government earlier. The government had launched the Central Rural Sanitation Programme in 1986. This was modified into the Total Sanitation Campaign in 1999 and into Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in 2012.

Make in India

“If we have to develop a balance between imports and exports, we will have to strengthen the manufacturing sector. Come, make in India, Come, manufacture in India.”

Prime Minister Modi had said this in his independence day speech on August 15, 2014. The ‘Make in India’ initiative was formally launched on September 25, 2014 by his government. The objective was job creation and skill enhancement in 25 sectors of the economy, besides establishing India as a global design and manufacturing hub. A global publicity campaign was launched to promote India as a manufacturing hub.

The programme included at its centre, a National Manufacturing Policy, It was aimed to increase manufacturing’s share in Indian GDP from 16 per cent to 25 per cent and help create 100 million jobs by 2022.

Make in India has, however, not been able to push up the share of manufacturing in India’s GDP. In 2015-16, manufacturing accounted for 16.8 per cent of GDP. In 2017-18, it was marginally lower at 16.6 per cent.  

India’s merchandise exports which stood at $314 billion in 2013-14 (before the Modi government was sworn in) and have declined to $302.84 billion in 2017-18. Data from CMIE shows that India’s export-GDP ratio at 11.65 per cent in 2017-18 is the lowest in 14 years. 

Rural electrification

“There have been so many years of independence but even today there are about 18,500 such villages in our country, where electric wires and poles are yet to reach. But it is now the solemn pledge of the "Team India" of 1.25 billion countrymen that the target of providing electric poles, electric wires and electricity to these 18,452 villages would be achieved within next one thousand days.”

In his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2015, PM Modi announced that his government would electrify every one of these 18,452 villages by 10 May 2018. On 29 April, 2018, PM Modi tweeted that this had been achieved on 28 April, 2018, 12 days before the deadline was to end.

A village is said to be electrified if 10 per cent of its households have power and if electricity is available in public places like schools or health centres. Only 1,500 Indian villages were electrified at the time of independence. As many as 108,280 villages were electrified between 2005 and 2014. The remainder 18,452 villages were electrified during the past three years. Twitter: @bhayankur