Highlights: Our economic reforms will help the poor, says PM Manmohan Singh at Congress mega rally

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the Congress mega rally at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi today. Here are the highlights of Dr Singh's speech:

• I am thankful that you all came to this rally
• Today I am going to speak about certain work done by the UPA govt
• We have worked on the principles of the Congress party
• We have worked for the betterment of the common man
• I want to inform you how we are going to help change our nation and also the progress of our nation
• People are plagued by unemployment
• We took some decisions recently. And some people are trying to mislead the public
• No nation can address its biggest challenges without economic development
• We have made efforts to create an investor-friendly environment and have been successful to a large extent
• We have set new records in economic growth
• We have laid special emphasis on infrastructure. We are going create better roads 
• The economic development of the country needs to reach the poor and common people
• We believe that economic development should enable everyone to get all the basic amenities
• In rural areas, water and electricity has been supplied
• Majority of our population is involved in agricultural sector
• We want our farmers to get the benefits
• It is our dream to work towards an strong and prosperous nation and we will not spare any effort to achieve that
• We need many times to adopt the more difficult path rather than take the easy way out because that may be beneficial for the country's future
• We have also concentrated on infants and the nourishment of mother and the kid
• In order to reach our goal, we will have to take difficult decisions
• On FDI: This decision is for the betterment of the people. We want our farmers to be happy and prosperous
• Opposition has said that FDI will take jobs away from people, either they are trying to fool the people or are not aware about the benefits
• We want FDI in retail primarily in the bigger cities
• We have seen other countries progressing after introduction of FDI in retail
• This is not the first time we've brought in foreign investment. We've done it before and today we are reaping its benefits
  
• The difference between us and those opposing us is that the Congress party and the govt want to create a change in society
• The govt's subsidy bill is growing. The growing fiscal deficit will hurt the people of this country in the long run. That's why we were compelled to raise petroleum prices. We had a major internal debate on those decisions. We felt this needed to be done in larger national interest