homehealthcare NewsDavos 2023 | India's narrative has undergone a huge change, says Minister Smriti Irani
Davos 2023 | India's narrative has undergone a huge change, says Minister Smriti Irani
Irani said the agenda that India has set at the altar of reform and investment is that growth will not be sacrificed for scale, "The agenda India has set is not only the scale at which you can operate administratively and from a corporate point of view but the diversity of the issues that you can address."
The air of pessimism and lack of strong leadership surrounding India has given way to India being a country which doesn't need to sacrifice growth at the altar of reform and investments, Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs Smriti Irani said on Thursday.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meet in Davos, Switzerland, Irani said, "The agenda India has set is not only the scale at which you can operate administratively and from a corporate point of view but the diversity of the issues that you can address."
Rewinding back to 2014, she said there was an air of pessimism around India in 2014 when it came to transparency in the regime. "There was a conversation which is very meekly done, about whether we have the potential to have a leadership that gives political stability so that investment can prosper. Those were the remnants of conversation then," she said.
She said when faced with a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, the challenges are multiple. "India's talent pool is challenged. That is a time when your resources are stressed, that is a time when people say they have differentiated responsibility, but there has to be a cohesive global response, and where do you stand in that response. So what do I see now? We are at the precipice of new beginnings from an investment point of view."
Irani also stated that India has made an economic case for gender justice and inclusion, "The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has moved from looking at welfare activities to social strategies. That's a huge change not only of narrative but also administrative practice."
She cited the example of MNREGA where Prime Minister Modi is inculcating a fiscal discipline for spending, "So of the 500 million person-days of work that was generated, you have an enhanced allocation for spend under MNREGA but you also see a 52 percent and above participation by women."
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Talking on COVID-19 vaccines, she said for the first time, India was genuinely in trouble as supply chains globally had choked, had pharmacological needs and Prime Minister Modi had immense political pressure from the opposition.
"But PM Modi said let's look at our indigenous capacities to produce. We produced vaccines, we produced PPE suits, we had dial-ins from 150 nations, and we did not commercially exploit it. We said we will supply you at cost, and many countries were given vaccinations and medicines free by the government. So we created an environment where we went on the empathetic route of enterprise," Irani said.
Watch the video for the entire interview
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