New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants his top babus to lift the lives of the people of the nation out of the morass of poverty and power the country for becoming a five-trillion-dollar economy.

PM Modi set the goals of his top bureaucracy on Monday. He held an extensive interaction with the secretaries to the government of India.

He asked the officials to make ‘Ease of Living’ their top priority, while he identified poverty alleviation and the water sector as core focus areas of the Government of India.

Cutting out their jobs, the prime minister also congratulated them for their governance efforts that had led to pro-incumbency. He said the 2019 Lok Sabha elections witnessed a feeling of pro-incumbency, which meant people were happy with the work of the government. “For that, a large part of the credit goes to the officials who have delivered on the various governance targets during the last five years,” PM Modi said.

The prime minister said the people of India had a lot of expectations from the Centre and he considered that as a good thing.

“We should take expectations of people as an opportunity for us to work even harder. Expectations show that people are eager and also have the urge to transform the nation,” he said.

PM Modi affirmed, “Our vision is that India a five-trillion-dollar economy. For this, each of us should prepare a roadmap of our respective departments and work to fulfil the goals set.”

He called upon officials to consult people from all walks of life and get fresh ideas on key policy subjects.

The prime minister urged officials to increase the use of technology in governance as it enhanced efficacy and reduced corruption. “Examples of this are to create real-time dashboards in their departments,” he added.

He also asked secretaries to accord significance to the aspirational districts across the nation. The PM had renamed ‘backward’ districts as aspirational during his last term.

In turn, the top babus suggested insightful ways to boost ‘Ease of Living’, the vision for 2022 when India would mark 75 years of Independence and the deliverables in the coming 100 days. They suggested ways to draw up a long-term roadmap for the coming five years.