
The India Of His I-Day Speech
More specifically, there were three important considerations that were invoked rather indirectly to provide a context to proposed policy initiatives: State's role as a facilitator; nationalism as a driving force of politics and finally, the idea of transformation.
State as a facilitator | Modi govt inherited a state that was already committed to a liberalisedglobalised market economy. There has always been consensus that free market can regulate itself, hence there is no need for any outside intervention in the economic sphere. The state, in this framework, is expected to function as a facilitator in two ways.
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