Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the nation from the Red Fort on the 80th Independence Day, declared that India had transformed from the “fragile five” economies to a major global power over the past 12 years. He highlighted that the world once grouped India among fragile economies dependent on risky foreign capital, but collective efforts had reversed that trajectory.

Modi cited 2.5 lakh registered start-ups and announced a plan to train 1 crore young people in AI skills within a year. Production has begun at three semiconductor plants, with five to eight more expected. Defence output grew fourfold, Khadi and village industries fivefold, and electronics manufacturing sevenfold. Mobile production rose 33%, digital transactions doubled, and railway electrification — stalled at 30% for 90 years — was completed in a decade.

The Prime Minister set ambitious targets: 50 Indian firms in the Fortune 500, five pharma companies and one bank among the world’s top five, and 100 GW of nuclear capacity with five new nuclear reactors. Piped gas now reaches 700 cities covering 1.75 crore households. Universities nearly doubled to almost 1,000, medical colleges rose to 850, and India has signed FTAs with 40 countries.