Operation Ganga proof of our growing influence in world: PM Modi

“You have seen how, under Operation Ganga, India is bringing its citizens safely out of the war zone. Many big countries are facing difficulties in doing so. But it is due to India’s increasing influence that we have brought thousands of students back to their motherland,” Modi said at the commemoration ceremony of the Golden Jubilee of Symbiosis University.

More than 15,900 Indians have been brought back since the special evacuation flights began on February 22, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in an official release on Sunday. Eleven special civilian flights had brought back 2,135 Indians on Sunday, the release said.

Modi, who also inaugurated the Symbiosis Aarogya Dham, a project for the integrated development of various institutions to provide healthcare services as well as academic programmes, at the university’s campus in Lavale, told students that their generation was fortunate that it did not have to burdened by the “defensive and dependent psychology” of “earlier times”.

“But if there has been this change in the country, the credit goes to the youth of India,” he said.

The Prime Minister said India was now on the way to becoming a global leader in fields it could not even think of venturing into earlier.

“The example of mobile manufacturing is before us. Until a few years ago, we would only import… In the defence sector, we believed for decades that we could only be dependent on other countries… But today, both our situation and our circumstances have changed… Seven years ago, there were only two mobile manufacturing companies in India, today, there are more than 200 manufacturing units. The country that was known as the world’s biggest defence importer is now becoming a defence exporter…,” he said.

Modi asked students to make use of the “infinite opportunities” available to them in various sectors to contribute to the nation’s growth. “Start-up India, Stand-up India, Make in India, and Aatmanirbhar Bharat represent your aspirations. India is innovating, improving, and also influencing the whole world,” he said.

Modi also inaugurated a 12-km section of the Rs 11,400-cr Pune Metro Rail project. He said the construction of the Pune Metro was evidence of the difference that infrastructure projects could make if they were completed on time.

“I had laid the foundation stone of the Pune Metro, and I am now inaugurating the mega infrastructure project. Earlier, there used to be a foundation stone laying ceremony for infrastructure projects, but no one knew when they would be inaugurated,” Modi said after the inauguration.

The Prime Minister travelled by the Metro from Garware College station to Anandnagar station on Paud Road along with children with disabilities and students of government schools. He bought his own ticket for the journey by making an online banking transaction.

At Symbiosis, Modi said the contribution of Pune in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic was known around the world, referring to Serum Institute of India, the manufacturer of the Covishield vaccine against the coronavirus.

Covishield has been used for more than 90 per cent of the inoculations in the country, and has been exported to several countries.

During his visit to Pune, the Prime Minister also unveiled a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on the premises of Pune Municipal Corporation, inaugurated the R K Laxman Art Gallery-Museum, and laid the foundation stones of several development projects.