Incremental progress is not enough; a metamorphosis is needed : PM

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today expressed dissatisfaction over mere incremental growth in the country and stressed upon the need of a metamorphosis. Inaugurating the NITI Aayog's series of annual lecture on Transforming India, Mr Modi said "If India is to meet the challenge of change, mere incremental progress is not enough, a metamorphosis is needed".

Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam delivered a keynote address on "Fulfilling India's Potential in the Global Economy". Stressing for global perspective and collaborations, Mr Modi said "Development now depends on the quality of institutions and ideas,We must change for both external and internal reasons,30 years ago, a country might have been able to look inward and find solutions but today countries are so interdependent and interconnected that no country can afford any longer to develop in isolation".

Mr Modi said "Younger generation in India is thinking and aspiring so differently that government can no longer afford to remain rooted in the past". The transformation of India cannot happen without transformation of governance and that needed transformation of mindset and transformation of ideas, he added.

Mr Modi whose government had already substituted the Planning Commission with the NITI Aayog, said "We cannot march through the twenty first century with administrative systems of the nineteenth century". "What we need is a collective opening of our minds, to let in new global perspectives: He hailed the first Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew as one of the greatest reformers and administrators of present times saying "he transformed Singapore to what it is today.

"It is therefore fitting that we are inaugurating this lecture series with Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore", he said. Mr Shanmugaratnam is one of the world’s leading intellectuals, the Prime Minister said. (UNI)