Rio de Janeiro [Brazil]: Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted India’s effort to remove 250 million people from the clutches of poverty, during his address at G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brazil.
He was addressing the G20 Session on ‘Social Inclusion and the Fight Against Hunger and Poverty’, where he emphasised that that India’s believes in approaches of ‘Back to Basics and March to Future’. He mentioned the nation’s emphasis on organic farming and encouraging climate-resilient crops.
In a series of posts on X, PM Modi summarised his address in which he noted the key steps that India has taken in its fight against poverty and hunger.
“At the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, spoke at the Session on the ‘Fight Against Hunger and Poverty.’ This is an important subject and success in this sector will contribute greatly towards sustainable progress. During my remarks, I talked about India’s efforts, notably how we collectively worked to remove 250 million people from the clutches of poverty,” PM Modi wrote on X.
“India believes in the approaches of ‘Back to Basics’ and ‘March to Future.’ That is why we are emphasising on organic farming, popularising millets (known as Shree Anna in India) and encouraging climate-resilient crop varieties,” he added.
PM Modi also highlighted India’s achievement of providing free ration to 800 million people. He further spoke about initiatives to ensure healthcare for the poor and elderly.
“Highlighted how India is providing free ration to 800 million people, thus strengthening the fight against hunger. Also spoke about initiatives being undertaken to ensure top quality and affordable healthcare for the poor and elderly, steps to boost financial self-reliance among women and ensuring food as well as nutritional security,” PM Modi wrote on X.
PM Modi met First Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Gita Gopinath on the sidelines of the summit.
Gita Gopinath hailed India’s initiative to reduce hunger and poverty and said that the world can learn from them.
“Great to meet Prime Minister @narendramodi at the G20 summit in Rio. He conveyed the many successes of India in reducing hunger and poverty. Numerous creative initiatives for the world to learn from,” Gopinath said.
During his address PM Modi also welcomed the Brazilian initiative to establish a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, underlining that the Global South was severely impacted by food, fuel and fertilizer crises created by the ongoing conflicts, and therefore, their concerns ought to be given primacy.
“We support Brazil’s initiative for a “Global Alliance against hunger and poverty”. This is an important step towards the implementation of the Deccan High level principles for Food security, adopted at the New Delhi Summit,” he stated.
Prime Minister Modi stressed that the Global South can be developed only if the decisions taken at the summit have their challenges in mind.
“Countries of the Global South are most adversely impacted by the food, fuel and fertilizer crisis caused by global conflicts. So our discussions can only be successful when we keep in mind the challenges and priorities of the Global south. And just as we amplified the voice of the Global south by granting permanent membership of G20 to the African Union during the New Delhi Summit, we will reform institutions of global governance,” he said.
Prime Minister arrived in Brazil in the second leg of his three-nation visit. India is part of the G20 Troika along with Brazil and South Africa and has been actively contributing to the ongoing G20 Summit discussions.