I have toured around for 45 years and have experience of night halt at more than 400 districts. And that's why I know the reality of this earth.

It is a tribute to Indian democracy that a person from a poor family, an ordinary family, is today addressing the nation from the Red Fort.

Even small efforts to bring about a change in the social fabric eventually reap large fruits.

Even after so many decades of Independence there are 18,500 villages in India which do not have electricity. We affirm our commitment to provide electricity to all those villages that do not have electricity.

Skill development, speed and scale are the 3 important aspects that are relevant to the present-day growth and development module.

I come from a land where the idea of the whole world being one family is rooted in our ethos 'vasudhaiva kutumbakam'.

People to people contact is essential for Nations to come closer.