JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 23, 2024, while speaking at an event hosted by the Economic Club of New York. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing an “unbelievable job” in India by pursuing reforms and taking 400 million people out of poverty through inclusive financial programmes, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has said.

Mr. Dimon made these remarks on April 23 while speaking at an event hosted by the Economic Club of New York.

He praised Prime Minister Modi for the performance of his government.

“Modi has done an unbelievable job in India… He’s taken 400 million people out of poverty,” Mr. Dimon said.

“They’ve got an unbelievable education system, unbelievable infrastructure, they’re lifting up that whole country, because this one man is just as tough. Nobody. I think you have to be tough to break that down, you know, and he’s breaking down some of the bureaucracy…,” he said.

He also praised reforms undertaken by Mr. Modi in the recent past.

“They have put in this unbelievable trend that every citizen by hand or eyeball or by finger is recognised. They opened bank accounts for 700 million people. Their transferred payments are going through.” He also called Mr. Modi “tough” for breaking old bureaucratic systems and said, “We need a little bit more of that here (in the U.S.)”.

Mr. Dimon, 68, also had words of praise for the country’s indirect tax regime, which he said removed corruption emanating from the disparity in tax systems followed by different States.

“…I think you have to be tough to break that down, you know, and he’s breaking down some of the bureaucracy… But they all had completely different it’s almost like Europe, they’re completely different tax systems, which leads to enormous corruption. He’s breaking all that stuff down. And so yeah, they’re examples of people who have just turned these things around,” Mr. Dimon, who has run the largest U.S. lender for more than 18 years, said.