For a country many look to as the next big emerging growth engine, just when the current one is sputtering after a virtually uninterrupted 35-year run, it matters a great deal to be seen and heard on the world stage. This is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has apparently attempted in his various foreign trips and interactions with world leaders, even if there are cynics who might view these more as acts of self-projection. Any aspiring power, nevertheless, has to assert itself in the world arena and show that it means business while willing to proactively engage on issues from global security to climate change. Modi’s latest US visit — where he has held roundtables with top American CEOs across sectors, and made a powerful pitch for India’s permanent membership in the UN Security Council (UNSC) along with Japan, Germany and Brazil — should be viewed as part of this larger signalling exercise.
The main purpose behind his reaching out to business leaders, both in New York and Silicon Valley, has seemingly been to reassure them that India is indeed the place today to invest in — be it in infrastructure and smart cities, consumer-facing sectors or even transformative digital technology and app-based products. Moreover, the country has a government under him that is firmly committed to reforms and de-regulation; while the pace of these may not always match up to expectations, one need not harbour any doubts over their direction. The same India-cannot-be-ignored message and keenness to occupy centrestage in world affairs was sought to be conveyed by the call for an urgent reform of the UNSC to “include the world’s largest democracies (and) major locomotives of the global economy”. There can, likewise, be no meaningful 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development without taking into account the growth and industrialisation aspirations of 1.3 billion people representing one-sixth of humanity.
