Give top priority to ‘ease of doing business’, use Aadhaar to improve governance: PM Modi to states

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked states to accord top priority to ‘ease of doing business’ to take advantage of the golden opportunity as the world wants to partner with India.

Interacting with chief secretaries of states and union territories for over two-and-a-half hours here, Modi underlined the need for maximising use of the 12-digit biometric identifier Aadhaar to improve governance and eliminate leakages in government schemes.Observing that the whole world today has trust in India and wants to partner with it, he said, “This is a golden opportunity for us” and the states must accord top priority to improve on “ease of doing business” to attract more investments. Modi’s interaction was part of the National Conference of Chief Secretaries on the theme of “States as Drivers for Transforming India” organised by Niti Aayog. This is the first time that the prime minister has addressed such a gathering at such an event.

Briefing media after the day-long meeting, Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya said the prime minister told the state representatives to make full use of Aadhaar platform for good governance and eliminate leakages in government welfare schemes. Modi also asked the states to maximise the use of government’s e-Marketplace (GeM) by …read more