New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi put out a vision of hope and optimism lauding India's handling of the Coronavirus pandemic as he spoke at the virtual Davos Summit on Thursday. ALSO READ | Republic Day Clash: 16 Opposition Parties To Boycott President's Address; Seek Probe Into Tractor Rally Violence | See List
PM Narendra Modi addressed the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda Summit and he began his speech by saying "In the midst of numerous doubts, I'm here with a message of belief, positivity, and hope from over 1.3 billion Indians".
Lauding India's handling of the Coronavirus crisis, he stated how several at the beginning of last year, several experts and organizations had made predictions that India would be most affected by the pandemic.
"Someone had even said that 700-800 million would be infected and someone had said that over 2 million Indians would die from the pandemic. Looking at the condition of countries with better health infrastructure, the world was right in worrying about us," PM Modi said.
"India, however, took a proactive public participation approach and developed Covid-specific health infrastructure and trained its resources to fight Covid. We also used technology for testing and tracking," he added.
"18 percent of the world's population is in India, a country that saved mankind from a big disaster by saving its citizens from the pandemic," the PM stated.
India's Vaccination Drive
Prime Minister Modi talked about India going beyond fulfilling its requirement by saying that the country not only fulfilled its own needs of PPE kits and masks but also exported them for helping other countries.
He emphasised over India beginning the world's largest vaccination drive as well.
"India has vaccinated over 2 million health workers. In the next few months, we would complete our target of vaccinating 300 million old people and people with co-morbidities," he said.
"We guided the world on how India's traditional medicine, Ayurveda, can help in improving immunity. Today, India is sending its vaccine to several countries and is helping in developing the infrastructure for successful vaccination, thus saving the lives of citizens of other countries," the Prime Minister added.
India has been talked about internationally for helping its neighbours in these testing times. Comparisons have been drawn between India and China as the former sent free vaccine doses to neighbouring nations, being seen as a win in the 'vaccine diplomacy'.
PM Modi said that India's upcoming vaccines will help other countries to fight the pandemic at a swifter pace.
Reviving Economy & Push For Healthcare
Even on the economic front, the situation is set to change in the post-Covid era, the Prime Minister said while talking about the economic activities in the country.
"India continued its economic activities during Covid with infrastructure work worth trillions of rupees, providing employment."
Reiterating the 'mantra' of becoming Aatmanirbhar, PM Modi praised India's Aadhar system by stating how 1.3 billion Indias have Aadhar which is connected to their accounts.
"Just in Dec 2020, UPI has seen transactions worth Rs 4 trillion. People in the banking sector know how countries worldwide are trying to replicate the UPI system developed by India" he said.
He also talked about the government initiative for providing a unique health ID to 1.3 billion citizens for easy access to healthcare.
"Every success of India will help the world to succeed. Our Aatmanirbhar Bharat mission is fully committed to the global good and global supply chain," he assured.
Towards the end of the address, PM Modi mentioned "Industry 4.0" as he said, "Covid crisis has taught us the basics of human values. Industry 4.0 is for humans, and not robots. We must ensure that technology becomes a tool for ease of living and not a trap".