New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the Council of Foreign relations on Monday to address the gathering. Industrialists Anand Mahindra and Mukesh Ambani are among the audience listening to PM Modi at Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Here are the highlights:
- PM Modi is the 6th PM of India to address the CFR. He says he's grateful for the love he has received in the US
- PM Modi congratulates the CFR for taking unbiased decisions, not imposing their views at his address in New York
- CFR does not impose it's views, puts forth facts and let's people reach their own conclusions, I appreciate this
- PM Modi says that after 30 yrs India has voted one single party to complete power which is a feat in a democracy like India
- PM Modi says he was born in independent India and is the first PM to have been elected with complete majority
- PM Modi says his party had come with 2 objectives of development and progress, and India has responded positively to that in the LS polls
- Our youth has only seen instability. It is time for change now
- People of India have given up ruling nature of politics and have responded to progress and development
- Modi stresses his mission to propagate and practice e-governance and development in all strata of society
- My efforts are towards simplifying and speeding processes. We want to focus on transparency and e-governance
- Trust is a very important psychological factor. People have begun trusting our government
- The world will need a big work force by 2020, India is a young country, India can fulfil this demand
- By 2020 world's demand for work force will be high, India can fulfil that. That’s why we want to focus on skill development
- There is a 'new middle class' in our country, one which has just come out of poverty and does not want to go back. We have to pay attention to this 'new middle class'
- A Hollywood film costs more than amount of money we spent to reach Mars, we succeeded in our maiden effort
- The mandate people have given us, I feel it is my responsibility to take my nation towards development
- The States are also being strengthened to take decisions on labour force, Centre will co-operate
- In our country, issues of Labour reform may not be politically compatible but with the majority we got we will go for reforms
- Agriculture, manufacturing and services the 3 pillars for our economy. We need to balance them
- India has the 2nd largest railway network in the world, he has allowed for 100 per cent FDI in railways for its development
- Moksha is achieved by making pilgrimages to holy sites, but files didnt get moksha even after travelling several offices
- We are conscious about the environment and are making efforts to clean the Ganga
- Ideology has limits, philosophy is limitless. India's philosophy of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" is what we work with
- We publicly offered help to Pakistan when flood hit Kashmir and neighbouring country, that’s the way to take the world forward
- We want peace with our neighbours. I invited Heads of SAARC nations for our swearing in ceremony
- A plan to build a satellite to disseminate information for all SAARC nations is on the agenda
- Current century belongs to Asia, it can also be called the age of India
- India has 3 advantages compared to China. India has Democracy, Demography and Demand
- Terrorism is a threat to humanity. People need to come together to defeat terrorism completely
- It is sad to say that some countries have not been able to understand the evils of terrorism
- Tourism unites and terrorism divides
- We support trade facilitation, we know this is an era of global economy
- Modi takes questions from the audience at CFR in New York
- We support trade facilitation, we know this is an era of global economy
- We are clear on WTO policy on trade facilitation, I am against following populist policies but India has a large number of poor people. That is why the agreement on trade facilitation and food security need to go hand in hand
- We want to provide electricity 24x7 to all villages in India, it is possible and we are working towards it
- Al Gore wrote ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, I wrote ‘Convenient Action’
- All terrorist activity in India is exported, not home grown
- As far as India is concerned, we have a guiding philosophy inspired by Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi. We believe in non-violence'
- India's philosophy is centered around Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi's beliefs of non-violence. All the terrorism in our country is 'exported' and not home grown: PM Modi to a question on global terrorism spreading to south Asia'
- A lot of things connect India and USA and one such thing is democracy
- Modi explains Indo-US partnerships on a lighter note as a Husband-Wife relationship, not comfortable always, but long term forever
- We need to focus on what India and America can do together for the world, that should be a principle for our foundation
- Have requested America not to make the same mistake like you made in Iraq when American troops withdrew too quickly
- Withdrawal process in Afghanistan should be very slow
- India and China are capable to talk to each other and solve problems, do not need any international arbitration
- To empower women we are focusing on girl child education
- Our Foreign Secretary is a woman, our External Affairs Minister is a woman, my cabinet has women leaders: PM Modi on gender inequality
Earlier in the day, Modi met captains of 11 large American corporations over a power-packed breakfast meeting and pitched for big-ticket investments to develop India's infrastructure and create more jobs and enhance the quality of life.
The Prime Minister is believed to have pitched the India story in his interactions with the top executives, including Indian-origin PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and Citigroup chief Michael Corbat.
"India is open-minded. We want change. Change that is not 1 sided. Am discussing with citizens, industrialists & investors," the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs Syed Akbaruddin tweeted, quoting the Prime Minister as saying.
"Infrastructure development is a big opportunity; it creates jobs & enhances quality of life of our citizens," Modi told the CEOs.
Significantly, all companies already have considerable presence in India and their chiefs are believed to have expressed intention to further expand their engagements with the Indian government and enhance their business presence in the country.
Those present at the breakfast meeting also included Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, Cargill's President and CEO David W MacLennan, Caterpillar's Douglas Oberhelman, AES' Andres Gluski, Merck's Kenneth Frazier, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Carlyle Group David Rubenstein, Hospira's Michael Ball and Warburg Pincus' Charles Kaye.
The over one-hour-long breakfast meet was followed by one-on-one meetings with six CEOs of Boeing, KKR, BlackRock, IBM, General Electric and Goldman Sachs.
This is the first extensive business engagement in the US of the Prime Minister, who will also attend business meets in Washington tomorrow during his second leg of the 5-day visit.
