There is no alternative to good governance, says Narendra Modi: Highlights

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the global emerging markets forum of USA through video conferencing, today said there is no alternative to good governance. In India, people are not ready to be fooled any more, they want development, he added.

Following are the highlights of his address:

• Have seen authoritarian systems and democracies
• People's own government in a democracy is the best possible system
• Has limitations but nothing greater
• Had made lives better in a number of countries
• Problem arises when a disconnect occurs
• Democracy an organic entity
• Every moment is an interplay between people and government
• We take government as provides and people as beneficiaries
• This prevents people from being active participants
• Once we correct this, democracies can deliver the results that we are aiming for
• For a vast and diverse country like India, this model the best
• Allows local voices and concerns to be built into national agenda
• Those in the government have to understand that people's good is the biggest agenda
• People ready to listen
• Only assurance they want is that what is being done is for greater good
• People need to have faith that no foul play in the process
• In Gujarat, when I took over as CM, personally spoke to farmers
• Today most parts of the state get surface water
• Now more production per drop of water
• Our slogan is 'Per drop, more crop'
• We have to move from representation to participation
• In Gujarat, in the social sector people's participation is the key
• Enhancing the level of information
• Governments can't be run from secret files ... our optical fibre network is the biggest in Asia
• Our policy formulation is a result of wide consultation
• People and government can exchanged information on a real-time basis
• Even a common man knows we are a policy driven state
• Enhancing the level of institutionalisation - ideas have limited life
• A democracy stands on institutions. They help us put checks and balances
• The remedy is not in avoiding democracy but to keep misuse to minimum, Mahatma Gandhi had said
• Listening and redressing people's grievances is the master-key in a democracy
• Transparency, accountability and responsiveness  consolidates democracy
• After consolidation, on has to make it deliver for the people
• Gujarat was a trading society, we have tried to make it a knowledge driven society
• We have created a platform  i-Create to encourage innovations
• Gujarat is the only state in the world to have a forensic science university
• Moving beyond e-governance, we're using satellite based systems in many areas like telemedicine, education
• Unfortunately, leaders of today are involved in managing urgencies... the worst part is that real and long term issues remain side tracked
• All this can be overcome - what you need is honesty of purpose, integrity in intentions
• People can discriminate between good and bad - this has been by us in four assembly elections
• Mistake to consider emerging nations as markets - we should rather call them emerging growth centres
• They can be converted into growth centres with the right harnessing of human and natural resources
  
• Skill, speed and scale - preparing people, strong focus on faster growth and thinking big - are the three key drivers
  
• Good governance starts from good intentions, survives on lasting institutions and reaches across countries and beyond
  
• Lack of good governance is like the problem of diabetes
  
• Good governance is always easy and effective governance. We should have no doubts about democracy - it has a strong foundation and flexible structure - let us design useful practices and processes in this framework
  
• Most high performing countries of the world are democracies, all have passed through feudal and agrarian societies and authoritarian regimes
• In India people are not ready to be fooled any more, they want development
• (On pressure groups) You have to break the circle and reach to the people
  
• The common man will start supporting you - I directly go to the people and talk to them
• Our mantra was Gujarat's growth for India's growth
  
• We don't have diamond mines - but 80 per cent of diamonds are processed in Gujarat
• We don't have iron ore or steel but Gujarat is becoming an auto hub
• The people are enterprising and the real credit goes to them
• Our Jyotigram initiative - uninterrupted power supply to villages - has improved rural standard of living and powered growth
• I motivated civil servants to take decisions - I encourage them to take up projects which give them self-satisfaction
• People are the best judges and they have been given us a chance, voting for us
  Policy driven governance reduces corruption