Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held interactions with members of various associations in Dharwad and Belagavi on Sunday.
He held a meeting at JSS College in Dharwad and Sankam Hotel in Belagavi.
In Dharwad, he said that a resurgent India is leading the world in pro-people administration and a sound foreign policy.
“India is developing at an unprecedented rate. This is not the just growth in various aspects of the country but also a sign of resurgence of the values of this nation’s ancient civilisation. India will grow and stand tall among nations. It will change the whole way in which the world thinks of foreign policy,” he said.
“India has improved its ranking in business index to 63 from 142 and finds a place among the top 40 innovators in the world. The country that once neglected the manufacturing sector is now producing Apple phones, thanks to the major reforms in education and industrial sectors.”Subrahmanyam Jaishankar,Minister of External Affairs
He gave examples like COVID-19 that was seen as a challenge by the Government of India that came up the vaccines and online training modules and other similar solutions.
While several countries were struggling to recover from COVID-19-induced lockdowns, India is growing fast. With a growth rate of over 7%, India will soon become the world’s third biggest economy, he said.
India has improved its ranking in business index to 63 from 142 and finds a place among the top 40 innovators in the world. The country that once neglected the manufacturing sector is now producing Apple phones, thanks to the major reforms in education and industrial sectors, he said.
In the last nine years, 400 new universities have been established and over 5,000 new colleges set up. This is contributing positively to the economy, he said.
“Our exports that stood at 460 billion dollars in 2014, have gone up to 720 billion dollars. As many as 25 lakh km optical fibre cable have been laid across India. Over 100 crore people are using mobile phones and UPI transactions have clocked ₹800 crore every month,” he said.
He said that India is living in a fraternity of nations and therefore, every global event will have an effect, while events in India influenced the world. “Our foreign policy, therefore, can not be drafted in isolation,” he said.
He said that several developing nations are looking to India to become their voice to counter terrorism at international platforms.
He said that some developed nations are looking to India for its vast talent pool of skilled youth. “They are looking for educated, talented and innovative young minds. A country like India can supply that. This is especially true in fields like IT and electronics,” he said.
China-U.S. mistrust
“India will benefit from the growing mistrust between China and the U.S.,’‘ he said.
“For India to grow, States have to remain united and work with the Centre on several fronts,” he said.
Mr. Jaishankar said that India is quickly getting on the digital highway. “A few years ago, only six crore people had broadband internet connections. Today, the figure is 80 crore. This has spurred an era of innovations in India,” he said.
The Foreign Minister said that the world is appreciating some bold decisions of the Union government like eliminating terror outfits and deploying the Indian Army along the China border. “India has graciously donated money and material to poor countries that were hit with calamities. This has made us a source of hope for the future,” he said.
Reforms
“The world which knew India only for its poverty, red-tapism and nepotism earlier, is now fascinated by the reforms taking place. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, foreign policies are not made just by a few people sitting in Delhi. They involve feedback from stakeholders. The Government of India takes several domestic and foreign policy decisions during the course of administration. Each one of them are well thought out and taken after due deliberation. Public interest is the only principle behind each one of them,” he said.
“However, these policy decisions are subject to course corrections. If they are found to be inconvenient to the public, they are changed. Some of them are kept confidential if national security issues are involved,” he said.
He recalled that while India used 90 aircraft to bring back students and citizens from war-torn Ukraine, some developed countries used only a few aircraft for the purpose.
Member of Legislative Assembly Arvind Bellad, JSS Society secretary Ajit Prasad and others were present.
Spiritual teacher of the world
In Belagavi, he said that India has the potential to become the spiritual teacher of the world. He said that citizens have to participate in governance by cooperating with policy-makers and officers. Citizens should share ideas about how to make governance more accountable, transparent and people-friendly, he said.
Karnataka will play a major role in making India a five trillion dollar economy. Karnataka tops the list in the number of start-ups, innovation index, FDI flow and it has the highest number of unicorns, he said.
He recalled his Karnataka connection. “My grandparents lived in Bengaluru and I worked for some time in Chikkodi in Belagavi district. I used to visit Dharwad frequently then,” he said.
Members of Legislative Assembly Abhay Patil and Anil Benake, BJP leader Mahesh Tenginakai and others were present.
