Speaking on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi put forward the position that India's banking foundations, ongoing structural reforms, and overall economic steadiness make it a dependable partner for other nations at a moment when geopolitical tensions, fractured supply chains, and mounting uncertainty are weighing on the broader global economy.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, Modi cited figures showing a 7.8% expansion in gross domestic product during the April-to-June period, a current account deficit holding at 0.61%, and foreign exchange reserves that had climbed past the $700 billion mark. Modi further told the gathering that the country's financial sector had reached a level of soundness not seen for many years, and a statement released through the Prime Minister's Office conveyed his view that, amid widespread global uncertainty, India remained a place where investors and partners could count on consistency and predictability.
The prime minister pointed to a cluster of ongoing policy adjustments — a unified goods-and-services tax, new insolvency frameworks, the consolidation of dozens of labour codes into four, and the removal of criminal penalties for hundreds of minor commercial infractions — as factors the administration said had contributed to the country's economic resilience, though independent verification of that link was not provided.
Pointing to recent upgrades in the country's sovereign credit ratings, he stated that such improvements reflected underlying structural foundations and the pace of policy changes, adding that reform had never been driven by external pressure.
Those remarks from Modi came at a moment when armed conflicts in various regions, fractured supply networks, and mounting strain on cross-border trade and financial systems have left the global economy on uncertain footing. Overlapping upheavals — a worldwide health crisis, fighting across multiple regions, and disruptions to mineral extraction, energy infrastructure, and trade networks — had collectively shaped the present decade, he contended.
Worries about the weaponisation of supply chains, energy resources, minerals, technology, and payment systems were also part of his remarks, with the observation that the deep interdependencies built up across decades of global economic integration had gradually become points of geopolitical leverage and control. In that context, Modi noted that nations were actively seeking out reliable partners — ones able to keep supply lines intact and follow through on commitments when conditions deteriorated.
Speaking to the topic of international economic engagement, Modi conveyed that the country's expansion rests on shared advancement rather than gains pursued at other nations' expense, adding that growth is not drawn from any other country's losses. He expressed that expansion happens in step with the wider world, and in service of it.
Addressing the audience, the prime minister drew attention to the country's role in global medicine supply chains, noting that roughly a fifth of the world's generic drug output originates from India. Among the points he raised were the country's digital identity infrastructure and its standing as a destination for global talent, backed by more than 2,000 capability centres on Indian soil that support the operations of international companies.
Addressing technology and innovation, Modi noted that the number of startups operating across India had grown from just a few hundred at the time he took office in 2014 to well over 2.5 lakh at present. Roughly half of those ventures traced their roots to non-metropolitan areas, and women held leadership positions in more than four out of ten of them.
Pointing to digital public infrastructure as a lever for broader financial access, he noted that the same payments platform served street vendors and large enterprises alike. Modi positioned India as a provider of digital tools and frameworks to countries across the Global South, with the stated aim of helping those nations build out their own public digital systems.
The open-source CoWIN platform, built during the pandemic, was put forward as a case where a domestically developed tool went on to serve needs beyond the country's own borders.
On the subject of the energy transition, Modi noted that the country's installed renewable capacity had grown roughly fourfold — climbing from 75 gigawatts when he took office in 2014 to approximately 300 gigawatts today. According to that statement, the 40% threshold for installed electricity capacity drawn from non-fossil fuel sources was met by India in November 2021, clearing the Paris Agreement's 2030 deadline by roughly nine years.
Two government programmes — PM Surya Ghar and PM-KUSUM — drew attention from Modi, who pointed to their role in enabling both rural farming communities and ordinary households to tap into solar power generation while cutting down on energy expenditure. Taken together, those programmes brought roughly 30 gigawatts of new generation capacity online while trimming annual carbon output by upwards of 30 million tonnes.
Five initiatives put forward by Modi on the international stage — the International Solar Alliance, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, the Global Biofuel Alliance, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, and Mission LiFE — were each presented as frameworks designed to deliver shared gains across participating nations.
The prime minister argued that economic, technological, and political capabilities ought to be directed toward opening doors for others, not simply advancing the interests of individual nations, adding that the capacity to lift others forward is just as central to power as the capacity to advance oneself. Expanding on those remarks, he pointed to the nation's advancing capacities as a foundation from which other countries stand to benefit, framing the broader development agenda around partnership and mutually shared gains.
