Once 'fragile', Indian economy now world's fastest-growing: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the country had transformed from among the "fragile five" nations to the world's fastest-growing economy.

He was addressing the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) booth-level workers through video-conferencing and was speaking against the backdrop of the "#5yearchallenge" currently trending on social media platforms.

"Earlier, Indian governments used to remain in national and international headlines for scams. Nowadays, there is no discussion on scams, but on new schemes," Modi said, adding that the country had moved from scams to schemes in the last five years.

Five years ago, the world saw India as a nation from where news about scams, electricity shortage and financial crises emanated, the prime minister said.

This perspective, he added, had changed and the world now viewed the country with "vishwas" (belief and trust).

Touching on the topic of Maoist violence, Modi said the menace was once overpowering but now, had been contained and restricted to very few districts.

He added that the bravery of security forces and people's support over the last five years had ensured that the nation had won the battle against Maoist violence.

Five years ago, there used to be headlines that the country did not have enough toilets, causing embarrassment to women, Modi said.

Now, nine crore toilets had been constructed and sanitation coverage in the country had gone up from 38 per cent (when the National Democratic Alliance came to power in 2014) to 98 per cent, he added.

There was a time when 70 crore Indians had to go without electricity due to the failure of the northern (power) grid, he said, adding that today, several crore households had received electricity connection.

The prime minister said the country's economy, which had once faced the challenge of high inflation and low growth, was now witnessing a low inflation and high growth -- a transformation that had happened over the last four-and-a-half years.