Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on Sunday through his bi-monthly radio programme 'Mann ki Baat'.
Here are some highlights from his speech:
1. PM Modi in his speech wished good luck to the Indian and South African teams, who will be playing today. "Today it will be an interesting match between India and South Africa, who both have won two matches each and will playing the 5th ODI today. My best wishes to both the teams."
2. Organ donation is an important issue that the country needs to address. There is a high need for kidneys, heart and livers but the number of transplants are far less. The government set an ambitious target of one million organ donation and to achieve this the government is working on easing the norm.
3. This is the first time in India that such a large scale summit as the India-African Foreign Summit will take place 26 October to 29 October. India and Africa are similar in many ways. Indian-African ties are developing strongly. 25,000 African students are studying in India and many of their politicians have studied in India. This summit will strengthen India's relations with African countries.
4. The Gold Monetisation Scheme will be available to the nation in the coming weeks. The scheme, along with a few others, could be in place before Dhanteras ahead of Diwali, he indicated. "Gold can be converted from dead money to a living force. This is what we want to do and I seek your support," he said.
7. PM praises NDTV, ABP News and ETV Eenadu for their programs aimed at encourage the Clean India initiatives.
7. From Jan 1, 2016, interviews for lower posts won't be necessary. This has been implemented. There will be no requirement of interview for Group D, C and B posts in central govt. "In my Independence Day address, I had questioned the requirement of interview for lower category jobs. Because whenever a call for interview comes, parents of poor people run from pillar to post, looking for 'sifarish' (recommendation) and 'jack' (help) ... And perhaps this is the reason for corruption at lower levels,"
9. "We should end this...Interview can be held for jobs where personality or appearance is important."
10. The Prime Minister had also asked all the departments to end the practice of interviews at the earliest and promote merit by recruiting only through transparent, online processes.
[Read full transcript of his speech here]
