New Delhi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday said India will be an important pillar of the post-coronavirus global economic recovery and that the road map for winning the battle against the pandemic lies in countries restarting the economy and strengthening cooperative federalism.
Addressing an event, he said that India has set the tone for global collaboration to deal with the pandemic under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Singh said that extraordinary foreign outreach of the prime minister the last six years has greatly helped in forging such an international coalition against the pandemic.
He was speaking after inaugurating an international workshop on “COVID-19 — good governance practices in a pandemic”, jointly organised by Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC), Ministry of External Affairs, National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).
Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said that team work, compassion and statesmanship have defined India’s governance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and it withstood the governance challenge with a robust digital framework.
He said that it was Prime Minister Modi who gave a wake-up call to the world to fight this challenge by implementing an early nationwide lockdown despite a few cases of infection in India.
Singh said that the foresight and vision of the prime minister helped India to fight the pandemic in an effective manner and the same was emulated by many other countries.
Dwelling on the theme of mutual international cooperation, the minister said that Modi was not only instrumental in creating a COVID-19 emergency fund with a commitment of USD 10 million, but also addressed the pandemic issue at SAARC, NAM, G-20 and other platforms, besides engaging with the heads of government and states on individual basis, according to an official statement.
Singh said that a package of over Rs 20 lakh crore under Atmanirbhar Bharat announced by the prime minister is around 10 per cent of India’s GDP and was one of the highest in the world to overcome the challenges of the pandemic, it said.
He said that India will be an important pillar of the post-COVID-19 global economic recovery.
Singh said that the road map ahead for nations in winning the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic lies in restarting the economy and strengthening cooperative federalism, the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry said.
He said that the thrust is for stronger institutions, stronger e-governance models, digitally empowered citizens and improved healthcare.
The road ahead focuses on ‘Do Gaj Doori’ social distancing, which has now become a global norm, the minister added.
In his address, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said that developing countries were hit hard by this pandemic due to its limited resources and health and medical infrastructure.
But India under Prime Minister Modi took the lead in reaching out to fellow countries both in the region and outside with medical and other aid, he said.
Muraleedharan said that India is also taking a lead for development of vaccine in collaboration with other countries of the world.
The two-day conference is being attended by 184 participants comprising diplomats, civil servants and health experts from 26 countries spread over South Asia, South East Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The workshop was conceptualised with the objective of disseminating India’s good governance practices to ITEC countries.