PM MODI ADDRESSED WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
PM Modi addressed the Davos Dialogue of World Economic Forum virtually on January 28, 2021. The session was attended by more than 400 top industry leaders from across the globe where PM Modi spoke about the Fourth Industrial Revolution- using technology for the good of humanity. Prime Minister will also interact with the CEOs during the dialogue. Prime Minister Modi had informed about the session through his official Twitter account where he mentioned that he has been looking forward to speaking on a wide range of subjects related to the reform trajectory of India, increased usage of technology, and other issues.
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (WEF)
The World Economic Forum (WEF), based in Cologny, Geneva Canton, Switzerland, is an international NGO, founded on 24 January 1971. The WEF's mission is stated as "committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas". The WEF hosts an annual meeting at the end of January in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland. The meeting brings together some 3,000 business leaders, international political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists for up to five days to discuss global issues, across 500 sessions.
PM MODI SPEECH AT THE FORUM
• Prime Minister Modi during his address at the World Economic Forum talked about the message of positivity, confidence, and hope for the world on behalf of more than 1.3 billion Indian people. While mentioning the ongoing mega vaccination programme in India, PM Modi informed that in just 12 days, India has vaccinated more than 2.3 million healthcare workers. He added that in the next months, the country would achieve its target of vaccinating 300 million elderly people and people with comorbidities.
• PM Modi also highlighted India's progress while mentioning that there are two Made in India COVID-19 vaccines and WEF will be relieved to know that in time many vaccines will come from India. Prime Minister during this address highlighted India's role and how it undertook global responsibility from the beginning. He mentioned that at the time when airspace was closed in many nations, India took more than 1 lakh citizens to their countries and also delivered essential medicines to more than 150 nations. In its fight against the pandemic, Prime Minister Modi talked about India's role in saving the lives of people in many other countries by sending COVID-19 vaccines and also developing the required infrastructure for the vaccination. As India is making progress in its health infrastructure, Prime Minister at the global platform shared that the country will start working on a Unique Health ID to provide easy healthcare to its 1.3 billion citizens.
• While talking about India's Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, Prime Minister informed the world leaders that the abhiyan is committed towards global good and global supply chain. He added that India definitely has the capacity, reliability, and capability to strengthen the global supply chain. During his address, PM Modi assured India has launched 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' with the purpose of increasing the capacity of the country's economy. He added that the government has made one reform after another to provide high growth to the economy in this decade. These reforms by the government were long-awaited. Discussing the plan of infrastructure and economy, Prime Minister informed that it has been estimated that India's infrastructure needs by 2040 will be around 4.5 tn dollars. This goal will be achieved only if government and industry come together. The Indian government has also been working in providing a stable environment and other help.
WELCOMING MORE INVESTMENT
With the purpose of welcoming more investment, PM Modi informed that India believes in opening all the sectors for market participation. While giving the example of UPI, he added that the transactions at the UPI platform have crossed 2 billion per month and the major portion of these transactions are taking place through the apps that are developed by private players. India has also been promoting the investment in frontier technologies such as additive manufacturing, AI, and interdisciplinary cyber-physical systems. On the issue of data theft, Prime Minister assured the world leaders that India has been working on the strict law on data protection in the country.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FORUM
The World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos will be engaging the top leaders of the world to shape regional, global, and industry agendas at the beginning of 2021. The Davos Dialogue Agenda will mark the launch of the WEF’s Great Reset Initiative in the post-COVID-19 world.
THE GREAT RESET INITIATIVE
It is the name of the June 2020 50th annual meeting of WEF. It brought together the high profile political and business leaders convened by WEF and Prince of Wales with the theme of rebuilding the society and economy in a much more sustainable way post-COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, the theme of the 51st WEF annual meeting to be held in January 2021 was announced as ‘The Great Reset’. It will be connecting both in-person and online world leaders in Davos with a network in 400 cities globally.
