From border to business: PM's I-Day speech targets security, jobs and growth

WARNS PAKISTAN: 'TERRORISTS AND THEIR PROTECTORS WILL FACE SAME FATE'

- VINAY KUMAR

NEW DELHI: Touching on issues from the economy to national security, highlighting the threat of illegal immigration, and unveiling a plan to implement a nationwide security shield, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made several major announcements during his Independence Day speech on Friday.

Addressing the nation on the 79th Independence Day, the Prime Minister's announcements ranged from making India's first semiconductor chip to building jet engines and expanding nuclear power capacity tenfold — all aimed at firmly placing the country on the path to becoming a developed nation by 2047. He touched on a wide range of sectors — from the economy to security, and employment to self-reliance — in his address.

Modi delivered a 103-minute Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the longest by any prime minister in India's history.

He broke his own 98-minute record from the 78th Independence Day last year.

Before 2024, his longest Independence Day speech was 96 minutes in 2016, spoke for 56 minutes. He also surpassed former prime minister Indira Gandhi's record by delivering 12 consecutive speeches from the Red Fort, standing second only to India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who delivered 17 Independence Day addresses in a row.

Highlighting the "threat" of infiltration and illegal immigration, and announcing a mission to check "demographic change," he made his intent clear to stand like "a wall" to protect the interests of farmers and fishermen amid contentious trade talks with the US. He stated that the country's demography was being altered as part of a "deliberate conspiracy" and announced the formation of a high-powered mission to address the "challenge." He announced that a Diwali bonanza was on the cards in the form of GST rate cuts.