New Delhi: A “friend”, “visionary” and “deep into details”. This is how some global leaders have described Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the past few days, stressing that under his leadership, India has become an even more attractive place to do business.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Indian Embassy in Washington last week, U.S. commerce secretary Gina Raimondo, hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “visionary”.
“I had an incredible opportunity to spend more than an hour with PM Modi. He is the most popular world leader for a reason; he is visionary; and his level of commitment to the people of India is indescribable. His desire to lift people out of poverty and move India forward as a global power is real and it’s happening,” she said.
Raimondo added: “Anyone who knows PM Modi is aware of the fact that he is a tech guy and he is deep into the details. I found myself at his home at 7:30 on Friday night talking about the details of radio access networks and artificial intelligence.”
She further said, “Many of the actions India has taken under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, even over the past couple of years, make India an even more attractive place to do business. More transparency, the rapid move to a digital economy, absolutely zero tolerance for corruption, all of those things make India an even more attractive partner.”
Similarly, replying to a query during a press conference on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington Thursday, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF praised India for “doing an excellent job” in focusing the work of the G-20 group of countries on what matters the most. “What matters the most is to move through very complex policy challenges, comparing notes and coming up with the right policy actions,” she said.
India currently holds the presidency of the G-20.
In a panel discussion on “Empowering Women as Entrepreneurs and Leaders” organised by the World Bank at Washington last week, David Malpass, World Bank president, lauded the efforts of PM Modi, and said he is “deeply interested and concerned and pushing on this issue”.
For women to be able to communicate, to have digital transactions without having to go to the bank where there might be a male clerk, that doesn’t really receive them well, is hugely empowering, he said. “And also just the source of information that women can get on how other women are operating in other parts of the world, that’s huge. And so, I think we should push that along as fast as we can,” Malpass said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova termed India a global player, and a ‘Vishwaguru’ of the world.
“Prime Minister Modi with his 3D policy of Democracy, Dialogue and to my knowledge its Diversity. I think that this no-era of war and strategic application is really, really important,” Dzhaparova said last week during her visit to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in Delhi.
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‘Bright spots in global economy’
Daniel Leigh, IMF division chief, noted last week that India is a “very strong economy” and one of the bright spots in the global economy right now with a high growth rate.
“Yes, we have a growth rate for India which is 6.8 in 2022. Let’s not forget this is one of the bright spots in the global economy right now,” he said during a press conference to announce the ‘World Economic Outlook’.
The IMF has also lauded India’s public digital infrastructure in a recent paper titled ‘Stacking up the benefits: lessons from India’s digital journey’, noting that the country’s digital journey has “lessons for other countries embarking on their own digital transformation”.
“India was able to quickly provide support to an impressive share of poor households during the pandemic. In the first months of the pandemic about 87 per cent of poor households received at least one benefit,” the paper said.
At the World Bank event on ‘Making it Personal: How Behavioural Change Can Tackle Climate Change’, Nicholas Stern, member of the UK’s House of Lords, said, “Prime Minister Modi has brought in a whole new story of growth and development. I listened carefully to his speech at COP26 [environment summit] in Glasgow in November 2021 and what he set out, including LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), is what sustainable resilience and inclusive growth looks like.”
He added: “The clarity and commitment of Prime Minister Modi is critical. It’s absolutely embodied in the G20 leadership as well. This is the growth and development story of this century.”
Meanwhile, Joyce Kakuramatsi Kikafunda, high commissioner of Uganda to India has said they look at Mr Modi “as a friend”. He recalled that Modi visited Uganda in 2018 and after his visit, “things have never been the same, relations became activated and the level of friendship increased”.
“He (PM Modi) always says his friendship with Africa, in general, and in Uganda, in particular, it has no strings attached. He looks at the problems you have and then helps, unlike some other countries where they are like give me then I give you. He says the friendship that he gives you has no strings attached. Like when they helped us during Covid, we wouldn’t ever forget that. So we are really happy with the relationship we have. And my duty is to make sure that relationship remains beautiful,” she added Saturday.
Industry leaders globally have also hailed India as well as Prime Minister Modi.
On his trip to India last week, Anthony Capuano, CEO, Marriott International said India is one of the bright shining stories in their global recovery.
“PM Modi encouraged us to look at some of the palaces. He is keenly focussed on continued growth of the hospitality industry in India. The PM encouraged us to grow not just in primary cities but in secondary and tertiary cities across the country. He spoke about different destinations, places, islands, with the idea being for us to go to unexplored areas and create hotel infra there so that people can visit those places. He talked with great enthusiasm about the growth of the Indian middle class and its growth to explore the country,” he said.
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