The petroleum and energy sectors will play a vital role in making India a 5 trillion dollar economy, as envisaged by prime minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing the 7th convocation of the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) today in Gandhinagar on Thursday, home minister Amit Shah said the government had taken several initiatives to develop these sectors, such as the new Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), but still more needs to be done.

He remarked that while India comprised of 18 percent of the world’s population, its energy consumption is only 5.4 percent of the global energy consumption, which shows that the per capita energy consumption in the country is quite low.

Giving an overview of the economy, he said India with strong macroeconomic fundamentals is the fastest growing economy and has reduced fiscal deficit from 5 percent of GDP to 3.3 percent of GDP. India’s place on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking has improved to 77 in 2019, from 142 in 2014. Similarly, India’s ranking on the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index has also improved from 71 to 58.

Shah noted prime minister Modi’s goal of placing India among the world’s three largest economies by 2022. He noted that while there were only 3,000 startups from 1947 to 2014, today there are more than 20,000 startups, providing the youth opportunities to be globally competitive. He urged the graduates to take this era of transformations forward.

He said that decisions like the introduction of GST have proven that Modi takes decisions not to please people but to improve their lives and develop the nation. He also spoke of the surgical strikes and the Balakot airstrikes earlier this year and said that the strong, bold leadership of Modi has ensured that no adversary would think of harming India. He said the challenges of Articles 370 and 35A were solved by the iron will of Modi.

Shah recalled that PDPU was one of Modi’s dream projects when he was the chief minister of Gujarat, and said that through sheer hard work and will, within 12 years it has established its name as one of the best higher education institutes of the country.

Referring the prime minister’s remarks during the address to the nation on the independence day earlier this month, he urged PDPU to undertake research and development in recycling of single-use plastic and asked the institute to innovate in the field of eco-friendly plastic.

The home minister, visiting his parliamentary constituency, also participated in the concluding ceremony of ‘Mission Million Trees’ programme of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. As part of the Mission, launched on the World Environment Day, June 5, 2019, 10,87,000 trees have been planted in the city.

He also held a meeting to review the progress of various central sector schemes in his parliamentary constituency of Gandhinagar.