Banks, rupee should be key in global trade: PM
NEW DELHI: India needs to focus on making its financial system and currency a more integral part of the international trade and supply chain, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, inaugurating a series of events over the week to mark the government’s “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” campaign.
The campaign is meant to showcase the government’s efforts and outline longer-term objectives and initiatives in the run-up to India celebrating its 75 years of Independence next year. Modi, in keeping with the theme, highlighted the financial inclusion programmes and said that these must be popularised further.
“Focus is also necessary on how our banks, our currency become comprehensive part of international supply chain, international trade,” the PM said. In the last eight years, Modi said, India has shown that if it collectively decides to do something, the country “becomes a new hope for the world”.
“Efforts should be made so that the financial solutions, which have been prepared for India, should now also provide solutions to citizens of other countries of the world,” he added.
The PM also reiterated a statement he made recently, identifying India as a key player in efforts to solve global issues. “Today, the world is looking at us not just as a big consumer market but looking at us with hope and confidence as a capable, game-changing, creative, innovative ecosystem,” he added.
Modi’s comments come at a time when the international trade order has been disrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with sanctions by Western nations disrupting typical payment frameworks and routes, forcing India, among several other nations, to buy oil from Moscow in either rubles or their local currencies.
The US dollar is the most widely accepted currency for global trade, and American payment companies Visa and Mastercard are among the most popular end-user payment systems. India, however, has recorded a rapid growth of its mobile-based payment systems, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The PM said that his government, which recently completed eight years in office, was making welfare schemes “people-centric” instead of “the government centric approach of the past”.
He exhorted government staff to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for the people. “It should be our responsibility to reach out to all those who need help,” he said, citing the example of the integrated credit portal, Jan Samarth, he launched on Monday.
The portal, an initiative of the Union finance ministry, is meant to be one-stop gateway for over a dozen of the government’s credit-linked schemes directly connecting beneficiaries to lenders.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who also heads the corporate affairs ministry, recalled Modi’s speech from eight years ago, saying this government is dedicated to the cause of common citizens, particularly the poor and backward in every way.
She said the portal “will act as a single platform for loan application and processing” under credit-linked government schemes.