Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Venkaiah Naidu has said, populist measures in the past negatively impacted the investment in core sectors and affected the creation of long term assets and skills upgradation. Addressing the legislators at a workshop on the Role of Infrastructure in States in New Delhi today, Mr. Naidu said, the present government is focusing on development of infrastructure and social sector. <br/><br/>He said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Skill development, Self 'Employment, Inclusive Development, Economic Inclusion have become the focus areas for the Government. <br/><br/>Mr. Naidu said, the first major push to infrastructure and connectivity was given by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the present government is taking it forward. The Minister highlighted the initiatives taken by the government to boost the regional connectivity by setting up 50 new airports over the next three years and by investing over 7 thousand crore rupees in this financial year for better connectivity in the northeastern region. <br/>On demonetization, the Minister said, it has been the biggest reform since independence which broke the backbone of arms smugglers, drug traffickers, counterfeit currency and Hawala operators. <br/><br/>He said, demonetization of high value notes will help economic growth and bring down the inflation. Mentioning the current status of Smart City Mission, Mr. Naidu said, the Smart City Plan was running ahead of schedule. Sixty of the 100 cities are on course of implementation already. Eighty two projects are under implementation by 20 smart cities and another 113 projects will start soon .