Sydney, March 5 Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “very focused” on delivering welfare programs to ordinary people and has been successful in bringing “hundreds of millions” of them into the formal economy through “financial reforms” in India, according to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Carney was speaking on Wednesday during an interaction at the Lowy Institute, Australia’s leading think tank, where he was asked to speak about his assessment of Prime Minister Modi, days after the two leaders met in New Delhi.
The Canadian prime minister was in India from February 27 to March 2, during which India and Canada sealed key deals on the supply of uranium and critical minerals and agreed to conclude a comprehensive economic partnership agreement soon.
"…on a personal level, the impression I have is that he is a very… and I have known this before, but it is interesting just the interaction over time… very focused on delivering to, I would say, rural households," he said, using a French phrase to say, "to the person on the street."
"So a major motivation for the financial reform transformations, the payment system transformation, UPI, and other things, was to get money directly to individuals without leakage… in real time, and to bring people, hundreds of millions of people, into the formal economy," Carney said.
Modi has been successful in delivering welfare programs to ordinary people despite challenges, he said.
"He (Modi) is very focused on that aspect of delivery. So here he is… operating at this global level, India rising, I mean challenges, but much, much positive, but a leader who keeps bringing it back down to that level."
"So there is much, too much to see there," he said.
PM Carney also said that Prime Minister Modi has not taken a day off in the last 25 years since he first became chief minister of Gujarat in 2001 and then prime minister of India in 2014.
"Well, I mean, look, this guy is unique. I would say, 25 years… and he has not taken a day off," he said.
Carney said that Modi is “campaigning” every weekend, where “2,50,000 people attend his rallies.”
The Canadian Prime Minister also highlighted India's “non-aligned” position in global affairs.
"Their attitude would be, well, what took you so long to figure that out? I mean, we have been non-aligned since we gained Independence in 1947. And then, and so it is in that regard, we found the discussions around the areas where we could cooperate in a collaborative way and why that was in our, both of our, not just economic issues but strategic interests. Straightforward, I mean, straightforward absolutely..." he said.