AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that the government was making efforts so that young people from ordinary families can aspire and become entrepreneurs.

The Prime Minister was speaking via video conference on Friday at the inaugural ceremony of the Global Patidar Business Summit (GPBS), organized by Sardardham, an organization set up by members of the Patidar community.

Recalling the words of Sardar Patel, Prime Minister Modi said that India is not lacking in wealth and we only need to use our minds and resources to use this wealth in the best possible way.

“Today India has so much. We just need to build our self-confidence, our spirit of self-reliance. That confidence will only come when there is participation of all in development,” he said .

The Summit is organized every two years. The first two summits were held in Gandhinagar in 2018 and 2020, and the current summit is ongoing in Surat. The main theme of GPBS 2022 is “Aatmanirbhar Community in Aatmanirbhar Gujarat and India”. The three-day summit aims to bring together small, medium and large businesses within the community; encourage and support new entrepreneurs and provide training and employment support to educated young people.

“For eight years, it has been the constant efforts of the government through its policies and actions to create such an environment in the country that even young people from an ordinary family become entrepreneurs,” the prime minister said.

The Prime Minister said programs like Mudra Yojna give strength to those people to go into business who never dreamed of doing so. Likewise, Start Up India is helping to realize Unicorn’s innovation, talent and dreams that seemed out of reach earlier.

The Production Linked Incentive (PLI), the Prime Minister said, breathes new energy into traditional sectors and creates new opportunities in new sectors. He said that despite the challenges of the pandemic, the country’s MSME sector has been growing rapidly. Thanks to massive financial support, thousands of people employed in the sector have been protected and now this sector is creating many new job opportunities. The PM-SVANIDHI program connected street vendors with the growth story by giving them access to formal banking and financial services. The program was extended until December 2024 recently, he said.

The Prime Minister said that every business big and small contributes to national progress and this spirit of Sabka Prayas becomes the strength of New India in the Amrit Kaal. He said he was happy that this year’s Summit discussed this aspect in detail.

Moving on to Gujarati, the Prime Minister asked the community to create groups made up of experienced and young members to work on issues of national interest and document ideas, global good practices and government policies and their analysis can also be business. He said topics such as fintech, skills development, financial inclusion can be seen as suggesting intervention within government and academia. Similarly, the national education policy can be taken up to explore the best path to full implementation and suggest useful intervention at all levels.

The prime minister also asked the summit to explore ways to modernize agriculture and attract investment in agriculture.

He suggested that teams be set up to study the land use of Gujarat to suggest new methods of agriculture and new crops. He cited the example of the dairy movement in Gujarat which was conceived a few decades ago and changed the economic landscape of farmers in Gujarat.