While speaking of how India has walked the talk when it comes to raising issues of the Global South, today, Dr. S Jaishankar, the External Affairs Minister said that today the world was witnessing experimentation, expansion, deployment, innovation and breakthrough in its own country.
The minister said that New Delhi was also the first to respond during stressful and upheaval times in Myanmar and Turkey while recalling how India, during the Covid-19 pandemic emerged as the ‘Pharmacy of the World’, through the export of vaccines that were ‘Made in India’ to over 100 countries.
Dr Jaishankar, while speaking to the B20 summit in the national capital, said, “Today’s India is the one, where the world simultaneously witnesses experimentation, scaling up, deployment, innovation, and breakthroughs. I stress these developments not only because they solve one-sixth of the world’s problems by themselves, but because they provide replicable models for the rest of the Global South.”
The theme of the summit is ‘R.A.I.S.E – Responsible, Accelerated, Innovative, Sustainable and Equitable Businesses’. This year, over 1,500 delegates from 55 countries have attended the summit.
Reflecting on how India has worked to promote the Global South, he questioned how has India walked the talk when it comes to Global South? He said that stressful situations usually reveal intentions and behaviours. During the Covid (pandemic), ‘Made in India’ vaccines were sent around 100 countries and during that period around 150 nations imported medicines from the ‘Pharmacy of the World’.
The Minister went on to say that over the last decade India’s ‘development partnerships’ have significantly expanded, now covering 78 countries in all regions of the world. He added that 600 projects delivered or under execution are a testimony of New Delhi’s goodwill as much as of its capabilities.
On India being the first responder in crisis situations beyond its borders, he said, “We also stepped forward as the first responder in disaster, emergency and conflict situations ranging from Fiji and Myanmar to Mozambique, Yemen and Turkey. Emerging World 2.0 is one with more engines of growth, a fairer distribution of the benefits of globalisation, and greater resources devoted to attaining sustainable development goals and promoting climate action.”
Additionally he mentioned that was not merely challenging for the policymaking point, but that was even more so for those who shaped the real economy through their decision and choice.