Dutch nationals to get 5-yr business, tourist visas: PM
IN NETHERLANDS Modi says India is federal in ‘true spirit’, its diversity puzzles the world
THEHAGUE: India will soon take a decision on granting five-year business and tourist visasto Dutch passport holders, PM Narendra Modi said on Tuesday.
He made the announcement while addressing the Indian diaspora here just before concluding his day-long visit to The Netherlands, which has the second largest population of people of Indian origin in Europe after the UK.
In his hour-long speech, Modi mostly focussed on his government’s efforts aimed at women’s empowerment as he talked about the endeavour to ensure progress and modernisation of India.
He highlighted the diversity existing in India and said it was the country’s “speciality” which puzzled people in other parts of the world. “India is a federal country in true spirit,” he said as he wound up his three-nation tour which took him to the US and Portugal too.
The Prime Minister said his government’s thrust has been on “jan bhagidari” (people’s involvement) in governance as he believed that the country’s progress cannot be ensured only through the government’s work.
In this context, he referred to construction of toilets under the Swacch Bharat campaign.
He mentioned about various initiatives taken by his government in sectors like banking, energy and digitalisation and talked about progress being made in areas like space, healthcare and sanitation.
“The 21st century India should not lag in global standards in infrastructure and other areas,” the Prime Minister told the gathering of about 3,000 in Hindi amid repeated chants of ‘Modi Modi’.
Devoting much time of his speech to women’s empowerment, he referred to the contribution of 50% of the population in areas like dairy, farming, teaching, healthcare and entrepreneurship.
He said women were also going into new frontiers, including flying fighter jets and space, and bagging awards in international competitions like Olympics. The PM said India not only needs progress, but also modernisation in all areas.
He said while the earlier governments have also done work, they could satisfy the ambitions by doing “one or two tasks”. However, the aspirations in India have grown so much that the people expected much more development and modernisation, he said. Taking the example of power, Prime Minister Modi said his government had set an ambitious target of generating 175 gigawatt of renewable energy, that too at rapid pace.
IN HIS HOURLONG SPEECH, MODI MOSTLY FOCUSSED ON HIS GOVERNMENT’S EFFORTS AIMED AT WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT