President A P J Abdul Kalam has portrayed a rosy picture of the country as he unveiled the UPA government’s broad policy priorities for the coming year at the customary joint session of Parliament on the first day of the Budget session on Thursday.

India has entered a phase of exciting times and it was an “exciting feeling” that a nation of one billion people was raising to their potential by sinking their past differences, the President said while addressing the joint session at the Parliament House’s Central Hall.

The President’s speech was drafted and approved by the Manmohan Singh Cabinet last week. “Our economy is on the move and our people are on the march,” Dr Kalam said.

It may not yet be “India Shining” for the UPA government, but it is bullish about impressive economic growth rate of the past two years and the attention India is receiving from outside world.

In his 45-minute-long address, the President signalled a definitive shift of the UPA government’s focus from the last two years’ of emphasis on the social, rural sectors to the huge modernisation challenges in the infrastructure areas – roads, railway, airports, ports, power and manufacturing – and reform of the government.

He recalled the initiatives already taken by the government so far regarding rural development, rural employment generation, rural infrastructure development, urban renewal, primary education and health during the first 20 months of the UPA governance. He said the government would initiate measures to improve long-term agricultural credit system.

Dr Kalam, while recalling the setting up of the Administrative Reforms Commission last year, said that the government also planned reform of the country’s judicial system, de-criminalisation of the electoral system involving more powers to the electoral officers and moves for setting up of e-governance in the country.

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