Chartered Accountants will play a crucial role in building a developed India: Anurag Singh Thakur

Jalandhar (The Uttam Hindu): Former Union Minister and Member of Parliament from Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency, Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, addressed a two-day sub-regional conference jointly organized by the Northern India Regional Council and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in Jalandhar today. Shri Anurag Singh Thakur said, “I am delighted to learn that the Northern India Regional Council, in collaboration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, has organized a two-day sub-regional conference. In today's rapidly changing global environment, the role of consulting firms is crucial. Both NIRC and ICAI are leading organizations with a global presence and are providing excellent services in the field of advisory and consultancy. I am pleased to know about the Northern India Regional Council.

NIRC brings together a strong community of over 75,000 chartered accountancy professionals and 1.26 lakh students across Haryana, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, NCT Delhi, Punjab, and Chandigarh. ICAI makes us proud as it is the second largest professional body of chartered accountants in the world, with over 8.5 lakh students and approximately 4.15 lakh members.”

Shri Anurag Singh Thakur said, “Today, India is the world's fourth-largest economy, and under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the country has pledged to become a developed nation by 2047. India has become the world's fourth-largest economy, and we are on track to become the world's third-largest economy by 2030 with an estimated GDP of $7.3 trillion. It would not be surprising if we become the third-largest economy much before 2030. In the coming years, India will contribute 20 percent to the total global growth. For the past decade, under the leadership of Modiji, India has been consistently on the path of socio-economic progress, guided by our mantra: Reform, Perform, and Transform. Our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi once said, ‘A chartered accountant's signature is more powerful than the Prime Minister's signature.’ This speaks not only about the power of your signature but also about its integrity.”

Shri Anurag Singh Thakur said, “Whether it is empowering women and socio-economically backward groups, Whether it's building infrastructure, implementing financial reforms, promoting startups, or supporting research and development, our country's leadership has a very clear objective.

From the Prime Minister to the common man, making India a developed nation is a dream we all share.

We have moved from a sluggish economy to a progressive economy, from a cash-based economy to a less-cash economy, and to a situation where people are filing their taxes, contributing to nation-building. This is evident from the fact that the number of taxpayers increased by 82% between 2014-15 and 2023-24. In 2014-15, only 5.7 crore people filed their taxes. In 2023-24, this number increased to 10.4 crore. Similarly, direct tax receipts increased by 182%. Today, India has 1.85 lakh DPIIT-recognized startups, employing 17.6 lakh young people. This phenomenal growth in startups is due to a robust and supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem. We have approximately 10,244 fintech entities, the third largest in the world. All this shows that the Indian economy and people's incomes are growing, and entrepreneurship has become the new normal.

Shri Anurag Singh Thakur said, “The world learns from India. The world closely watches India's ideas and innovations. Let me give you the example of the "JAM" trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile). It revolutionized our concept of socio-economic welfare, making it digital and modern. Take the example of UPI, which is the biggest example of digital transformation in the economy.

UPI has revolutionized payments with 12 billion+ transactions every month, and India's share in global real-time digital payments is 49%.”