Mumbai: External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar highlighted the growing global recognition of India’s rise, attributing it to a combination of factors, from infrastructure development to an evolving policy environment that promotes ease of business and human resource growth.
Dr Jaishankar, at the Aditya Birla 25th Silver Jubilee Scholarship Program, emphasised that while the progress may seem ordinary to those in India, the world has increasingly taken notice of the country’s transformation. “The world is today increasingly appreciating the India story. We may experience it on a daily basis. So it is important to understand what is it that they see has now become different,” he told the audience.
He pointed to visible improvements in India's infrastructure, including the development of 75 new airports, 16 new metro systems, broader national highways, and better quality railway services. He also noted the rise of India’s youth, many of whom, he said, are now being recognised for their potential both in India and abroad.
“At a policy level, it is making it easier to do business, easing the lives of common citizens, de-bureaucratizing our society, strengthening civic awareness, and improving our human resources development,” Jaishankar said. “The world is a competitive place. And to ensure India's rise, we too must continuously sharpen our instincts,” he added, stressing that India’s future progress depends on its ability to adapt and innovate.
Addressing the global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jaishankar pointed out how the crisis revealed the vulnerabilities of relying on limited geographies for manufacturing and supply chains. He said, "The COVID experience brought home to the world the dangers of depending on a limited geography. It was aggravated by concerns that large production dependencies and market shares can be leveraged for political purposes."
In this context, Jaishankar underlined that there is now a greater global focus on building more reliable, resilient, and diversified supply chains. With the rise of digital technologies, data privacy and cybersecurity have become critical concerns, with nations seeking to protect their digital assets as much as their physical ones. "As we enter the era of AI, who captures, processes, and deploys your data is of utmost importance," Jaishankar said.
Jaishankar noted that these developments present an opportunity for India, which had previously missed out on the manufacturing boom of the past few decades, to now step up and capture a larger share of global production. He called for the creation of a robust industrial ecosystem in India, with the necessary logistics, infrastructure, and business environment to make it globally competitive.
“India has an opportunity to board the manufacturing bus that we missed to some extent in the past. It is incumbent on us to develop the logistics, the infrastructure, and the business environment to promote greater industrial production,” he stated. He also emphasised the importance of developing the human resources required to make India’s manufacturing ambitions a reality.
(Inputs from ANI)