New Delhi:

India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant today spoke at the NDTV World Summit in Delhi where he mentioned that this will be “India’s century”.

Mr Kant highlighted how the world is mired in conflicts – both in Europe and in West Asia. While this is sad and unfortunate, he explained that it also presents India – a largely peace-loving and ambitious nation – with an opportunity to set up manufacturing hubs and encourage innovation.

“When you look around the world, there are 3 big challenges,” he said, adding that conflict is the first.

“Europe was responsible for World War I, it was also responsible for World War II, and now we have had a war there for the last 3 years. 45,000 people have died in Europe,” he said.

“Similarly, 350.000 people have died n the Middle East. The region is up in flames,” he added, going on to say that because of these wars, “global value chains are disrupted.”

The third, he said, is the “rise of AI and Machine Learning,” adding that “Huge enhancement of production is needed. But you need international cooperation to have some pro-innovation regulations on that,” he said.

India’s road to becoming a developed country by 2047 will require immense ambition and a focus on manufacturing, urbanisation and “firing on all cylinders”, Mr Kant said, adding that “India can’t grow only on the back of services, it needs to become a manufacturing nation. 17.5% of your GDP comes from manufacturing, you need to take it to 25%.”

The former NITI Aayog CEO further said that it India needs to be an integral part of global value chains. “You can’t grow at rates of 9-10% year after year for three decades or more – that’s what you need to do – so when we are talking of a ‘viksit’ (developed) Bharat or a $30-trillion economy in  2047, growing from 4 trillion to 30 trillion means that your GDP has to grow nine times, your per capita income has to grow 8 times and your manufacturing has to grow 16 times, that’s the challenge. And to overcome that challenge, India needs to become a very integral part of global value chains,” he said.

Mr Kant said India needs to export in a big way and that is why there has been a thrust on the production-linked investment scheme.

“You need 10,000 large manufacturing companies here to penetrate global markets. You need size and scale of manufacturing, and you need 12 Indian states to grow at 10% plus. So you need ambition and hunger in states to grow rapidly and you need large companies to penetrate global markets,” he said.

“To my mind,” he said “this is a huge opportunity for India in all 3 areas of growth. This will not just be India’s decade, but will be India’s century,” he affirmed.
 

New Delhi:

India’s goal of becoming a $35 trillion economy by 2047 hinges on regional stability, said Ajay Bisaria, Former High Commissioner of India to Pakistan.

Speaking about India’s stake in West Asian affairs at the NDTV World Summit, Mr Bisaria argued that India’s role in promoting peace is crucial to mitigating risks to its growth trajectory.

Mr Bisaria highlighted India’s efforts to improve relations with its neighbors, Pakistan and China. He noted that recent diplomatic overtures, including Prime Minister Modi’s upcoming meeting with his Chinese counterpart and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan, signal India’s willingness to stabilise these relationships.

When asked about the potential for further progress in India-Pakistan relations following Mr S Jaishankar’s visit, Mr Bisaria stated that the aim is to stabilise, if not normalise, the relationship.

He emphasised India’s desire to be a force for peace and stability in the region and globally. “We want to be the rising tide that helps all the neighbours. And to be an advocate and force for peace in the conflicts in the world”, he said.

Tim Roemer, Executive Director of APCO and Former US Ambassador to India, echoed Mr Bisaria’s sentiments, asserting that India can play a pivotal role in building a new architecture for regional cooperation and security. He highlighted India’s significant diaspora in the Middle East and its growing economic interests as factors driving its engagement in the region.

Mr Bisaria also acknowledged the potential pressure on India-Iran relations due to the ongoing war between Israel and Iran.

He noted that the conflict has implications for India’s diaspora, oil prices, and geopolitical interests.

The BRICS Summit, where Prime Minister Modi and Iranian president met on Tuesday, was an opportunity for India to address these concerns and potentially play a role in peacemaking efforts, he said.

He also said that “If we can play a role in peacemaking, we will. India’s interest is this conflict ending as soon as possible.”
 

New Delhi:

India’s goal of becoming a $35 trillion economy by 2047 hinges on regional stability, said Ajay Bisaria, Former High Commissioner of India to Pakistan.

Speaking about India’s stake in West Asian affairs at the NDTV World Summit, Mr Bisaria argued that India’s role in promoting peace is crucial to mitigating risks to its growth trajectory.

Mr Bisaria highlighted India’s efforts to improve relations with its neighbors, Pakistan and China. He noted that recent diplomatic overtures, including Prime Minister Modi’s upcoming meeting with his Chinese counterpart and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan, signal India’s willingness to stabilise these relationships.

When asked about the potential for further progress in India-Pakistan relations following Mr S Jaishankar’s visit, Mr Bisaria stated that the aim is to stabilise, if not normalise, the relationship.

He emphasised India’s desire to be a force for peace and stability in the region and globally. “We want to be the rising tide that helps all the neighbours. And to be an advocate and force for peace in the conflicts in the world”, he said.

Tim Roemer, Executive Director of APCO and Former US Ambassador to India, echoed Mr Bisaria’s sentiments, asserting that India can play a pivotal role in building a new architecture for regional cooperation and security. He highlighted India’s significant diaspora in the Middle East and its growing economic interests as factors driving its engagement in the region.

Mr Bisaria also acknowledged the potential pressure on India-Iran relations due to the ongoing war between Israel and Iran.

He noted that the conflict has implications for India’s diaspora, oil prices, and geopolitical interests.

The BRICS Summit, where Prime Minister Modi and Iranian president met on Tuesday, was an opportunity for India to address these concerns and potentially play a role in peacemaking efforts, he said.

He also said that “If we can play a role in peacemaking, we will. India’s interest is this conflict ending as soon as possible.”
 

New Delhi:

The Rs 76,000 crore “Semiconductor Mission” of the government is a critical move in view of possible Chinese control of the semiconductor market, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant told NDTV in an exclusive interview today. Speaking at the “NDTV World Summit”, Mr Kant said it is a very risky proposition for countries to be dependent on chip manufacturers from abroad. 

Calling the government’s Semiconductor Mission a “most dynamic measure”, he said it would be transformational in the years to come.

To explain this, he referred to a book on “chips war” by Chris Miller. “It says if China were to annex Taiwan tomorrow, it would control automobiles, batteries, defence and aerospace,” he said.  

“Because the whole world will be running on chips. That’s why for countries to be totally dependent on chip manufacturing from abroad is a dangerous proposition and therefore India must build its own ecosystem because we are a very large consumer of automobiles, of mobiles… every Indian has a smartphone and you need chips for that,” he said.

Even now, global supply chains across the world are badly disrupted because the US imposed huge duty on imports from China, he said — 100 per cent on electric vehicles, 50 per cent on batteries, on solar imports, to name a few.

The logic US applies is that China subsidises manufacturing, their government supports it. “Therefore they are doing extra production to penetrate global markets and that is why China is controlling 70 per cent EV market, 75 per cent of solar market, 74 per cent of the battery market… So we must put an end to this power supply on global market,” he added.

New Delhi:

Climate change is a global challenge and it must be seen as a common issue for the entire planet to work together on, but it is increasingly caught in the web of whose responsibility it is – the developed world or the developing world, including the Global South. The other challenge being faced is the sharing of technology and financing the shift from fossil fuels to environment-friendly methods.

Speaking at the NDTV World Summit, Harjeet Singh, Global Engagement Director, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, highlighted the trust deficit towards the developed world and their responsibility, or lack of it, that needs to be addressed on priority.

“The trust deficit is because of a reason,” he said, elucidating that “When we see as India and other developing nations face tremendous pressure to move away from fossil fuels, and we must, but the reality is that there are sill millions who do not have access to energy in the developing world and need support, but in comparison, the developed world continue to increase its fossil fuel consumption.”

“When you look at the global fossil fuel expansion, you see Australia, Canada, Norway, the UK, and the US put together are responsible for more than 50 per cent of the planet’s fossil fuel expansion between now and 2050 – that is where the trust deficit stems from,” he further said, adding that on top of it all, “they are not willing to share technology or help with finance.”

Though he welcomed the new UK government’s decision to stop issuing any more new licences for fossil fuel plants, he highlighted that the licences already issued in the last few years will have a tremendously negative impact on the climate over the next many decades. “The trust deficit is a real issue that needs to be dealt with as the developed nations have not acted based on their historical responsibility and contribute their fair share to the climate challenge, but continue to pressure developing countries to do more, that too without assisting with technology or finance.”

Adding to this, another panelist, Shishir Priyadarshi, who is President of the Chintan Research Foundation said, “From the way the trade agenda was set in 1995 at the WTO, there are lots of lessons to be taken while working on the climate agenda. Why the setting up of the WTO led to a huge trade deficit was because of 2 reasons – One, the developed world made huge promises to the developing world if they simply lowered tariffs and opened up markets, and Second was that the developed world said ‘we know’ and ‘we will tell you how it’s done and what you need to do’, and that is something that led to a huge deficit of trust. That is something that we must avoid while setting the climate agenda”

DEVELOPING COUNTRY DOING FAR MORE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

Mr Priyadarchi highlighted how “The developing nations have done, and are doing far more to address climate change.”

Citing India’s example he said, “India has committed $2.5 trillion in investment towards climate funding between 2015 and 2030 – that’s huge,” he said, adding that “We (developing nations like India) are prepared to drive down the highway towards zero emissions, and we are absolutely with you (the developed world), but we will do it at our speed. You cannot tell us the speed with which changes need to be made or tell us that these are the restricted number of pitstops on the way. We will surely reach there, but we need the flexibility and support.” If this is done, then it will bring down the “trust deficit” cinsiderably.

Giving a perspective from the developed nations, British High Commissioner to India Lindy Cameron said “Our foreign secretary had said recently that he had heard that developing countries believed the system didn’t work for them. I understand that it is important we recognize that, but what we must recognize is that we all live on the same planet, and one must recognize that we in the UK have set ambitious targets like net-zero emissions by 2050.”

She also said that “After 6 months in India, I do believe that India is the place where this (climate action) is going to happen. This is the place as this is the country that matters most for the future of the planet and for climate change, because India’s ambition for development should not in any way be constrained by the responsibilities of the planet.”

She further said that “We are committed to reforms like making more affordable finance available for developing countries. And we are also working here in India on technology and research to ensure that we can support those incredibly ambitious goals India has set.”

The fourth panelist, Erik Solheim, Former Minister of Climate and the Environment of Norway, lauded China and India for their tremendous achievement in terms of climate action targets. Speaking at the NDTV World Summit he said, “Nobody should blame India or the developing world, especially when nations like the US where per capita emissions are 25 times that of India. The state of Gujarat alone has set the target of 100 Gigawatt of clean energy by 2030. This is enormous. It is as big as 20 times the entire energy grid of Nigeria – the biggest nation in Africa.”

He further said that “Forget all of India and what all the rest of the country is doing, but if you see just the state of Gujarat…if it were a nation, it would be the 8th largest in terms of green energy.”

He also had big praise for China, saying “China accounts for 60% of all green energy today and the rest of the world is the other 40%. India is second only to China.”

He also lauded Indonesia which he said has “brought deforestation down to zero, and made it the biggest rain forest nation in the world”.

“If ten years ago someone asked me where one needs to go to see climate progress, I would have said please go to Brussels or Berlin or Geneva or Paris, but today I would say go see what a Beijing, Delhi or Jakarta are doing,” he concluded.
 

Archeology and solid scholarship show that India lay at the heart of ancient world, argued historian William Dalrymple, underscoring that the myth of the Silk road has made India seem more peripheral than it actually was. 

“This map which people continue to reproduce in book after book of what is said to be the silk road. We are told that the principal trade east-west in ancient times was this single line which ran from the Mediterranean to the South China sea. Even its modern edition called the maritime silk road which runs down from Guangzhou through the Malacca Strait bypasses India. The line just dots around the peninsula,” said the historian speaking at NDTV World Summit on Monday.

“It is the contention in the book that I have just written – The Golden Road – that this is an entirely false premise. Memorised from this map and rooted takes. Compare it with the actual shape of roman trade with India which is revealed by new map put out by Oxford University this year,” said Mr Dalrymple.

He detailed India’s waxing soft power influence on the culture, education, religion and civilisations of the rest of the world from 250 BC-1200 AD.

“This is not about the Indian century, it’s about the Indian millennium stretching from around 250 BC TO 1200 AD when India was the centre of the world,” he said speaking at the Summit whose theme was ‘The India Century’. 

“Look at this extraordinary image that just turned up in an archeological excavation in Egypt. You can see very clearly it is the Buddha’s head. What’s surprising is the marble is carved from in what is now Turkey. It was found in a temple on the shore of Red sea. It seems extraordinary that a Buddha would turn up in Egypt but it should not be so when you consider that just as Buddha’s head is found in Egypt, 6,000 miles to the west of India so Angkor Wat to 5,000 miles to the east of India is entirely an Indian planned project. In the galleries of Angkor Wat, you see the battle of Kurukshetra, the battle of Lanka, images of Krishna and his gopis inspired by stories first told in the area here around Delhi. Why is this not better known. Why is it a surprise that India dominated Asia for as much as a 1,000 years,” asked the historian.

Answering his own question, the historian said the blame lay partly in colonialism.

“Partly, the story is clearly about colonialism about the way that Macaulay and others like him said that a single shelf of good English books is worth entire native literature of India and Arabia,” he said. 

The historian pointed out Rome and India were the main trading partners of each other in ancient India and not China. He added that romans knew every coast on the west coast of India and couldn’t get enough of Indian products, underlining the importance of the country. 

“Here is a map of Roman coin hordes discovered by archeologists. None are found east of the Pamirs of the Oxus. Not a single Roman coin horde has ever been found in China. But there is a notable concentration of roman gold all around the coasts of India. India is dotted with Roman coin hordes. India and Rome were the principal trading partner of each other in the early millennia BC,” he said. 

Very Indian looking deities and apsaras seen floating over the Buddhist temples of China tell the story of Indian art having more and more influence, said the historian. 

“Indian ideas were soon being transmitted through Afghanistan, through Bamiyan to China, where by 2nd and 3rd century we find the Budhha taking on the physiognomy of China. Originally Buddhism is just the religion brought by traders into China, but by the 5th and 6th century we find Gupta sculptures being copied by Chinese all over Ghangzuo and beginning to head eastwards into the heartlands of China,” said the historian.

The historian described Nalanda University as the Oxbridge of ancient India which attracted students from all over, including Korea and Japan.  

“Nalanda – the oxbridge, the Ivy League, the NASA of ancient Asia – was visited not just by monks from China but monks from Nepal, Korea and Japan. Its library had science, mathematics, astronomy, everything was gathered in this extraordinary space. Look at the plan of different monasteries and university buildings in Nalanda, it is the same as we find in Oxbridge,” he said. 

Sanskrit emerged as the language of diplomacy and culture, spanning from Kandahar to Bali, he said, adding that the Palava script formed the base for various Southeast Asian scripts such as Khmer and Thai.

New Delhi:

Israel has a right and duty to retaliate after Iran fired at least 180 missiles at it on October 1, the country’s Ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, has said. 

In an interview during the NDTV World Summit on Monday, Mr Azar said Israel is keen on peace and stability in the region but it cannot have a situation where Iran is free to attack whenever it likes. 

Mr Azar also said that, as a rising power, India has a substantial role to play in the Middle East and its importance will only increase every year. 

Asked about reports stating that Israel could respond to the Iranian attack before elections are held in the US – which is its most important ally –  on November 5, the ambassador said, “The US elections are not a factor. What is a factor is that we have not only a right but a duty to retaliate. Imagine a situation in which a country like Iran is capable of threatening any country in the region without any repercussions… this is completely unacceptable.”

Mr Azar said Israel wants to promote stability in the region and it is doing that with its peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt, the Abraham Accords with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, and dialogue with Saudi Arabia. 

“We have proved after the attack by Iran that we are capable of defending the skies of the Middle East from the Iranian threat, but we cannot be in a situation in which the Iranians feel free to attack us at any point. This is why the security building block has to be complemented by our retaliation,” he said. 

‘Neutralised Missile Threat’

On the killing of leaders like Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and the fact that the outfit has regrouped in the past, Mr Azar said the situation is very different now. 

“What we have managed to achieve in the Gaza Strip right now is that we have defeated the terrorist army of Hamas in a way that they cannot pose a missile threat to Israel. We have destroyed their missile factories. We have sealed the border between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai, so it will be much more difficult to re-arm,” he said.

The ambassador admitted that they have not been able to bring back all the hostages from the October 7, 2023, attack and remove Hamas from government. The latter, he said, is being worked on by finding a way to distribute assistance to the population in Gaza so that Hamas cannot hold them hostage.

The balance, the ambassador claimed, is changing in Israel’s favour in its conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah. 

Indian Century

Asked about India’s role in West Asia and in ending the conflicts, Mr Azar said the country will contribute a lot to the region and the world.

“India is a rising power. I was looking at the data and I saw that in the next year, when India grows by seven per cent, it will grow by $260 billion… our (Israel’s) economy is $600 billion. So what India has to contribute to the world is huge. It is going to be a powerhouse, a manufacturing hub, and it needs to be connected to the world. It has a lot to offer to countries in West Asia. I have seen how India is increasing its links with the UAE,” he noted.

The envoy added, “When all this infrastructure of connectivity is set, we are going to see an incredible role of India in our region. It won’t be just about merchandise, it will be about manufacturing… We depend on the goodwill of India, on the investments of India, on our cooperation with India and that role is going to increase every year.”

New Delhi:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today spoke about ‘The India Century’ at the NDTV World Summit in New Delhi. During the interaction Mr Jaishankar gave a detailed overview on India’s foreign policy and how it is playing an increasingly global role.

Speaking exclusively to NDTV World, Mr Jaishankar discussed the entire gamut of ties – from the US and China to Russia and India’s neighbourhood. He even spoke a few lines about Pakistan.

When asked about the Russia relationship, the foreign minister made it absolutely clear that India’s relationship with Russia is time-tested and among the most important. Explaining his point he said, “I’ll put it to you very simply. If you look at our history with the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia since Independence in 1947, I can say with confidence and knowing that nobody in this room can contradict it, that Russia has never done anything to impact India’s interest negatively,” adding that in geopolitics, “that is a big statement to make because there are not many major countries in the world for whom such a statement can be made.”

He further told NDTV World that “Today, Russia’s situation is different and Russia’s relationship with the West has broken down. We now have a Russia which is turning much more towards Asia (than Europe and the West), so we must ask ourselves that if Russia is looking more at Asia, should Russia not have multiple options in Asia? And as an Asian country, should we (India) not do in Asia that which is in our national interest?”

“Clearly, Russia as a major natural resources power has a complementarity with India at this stage of development when we are big resource consumers. People talk about Russian oil, but it isn;t just about oil. It could be about fertilizers, metal, coal, etc. So, there is a big economic logic to it as well,” Mr Jaishankar added.

Mr Jaishankar went on to say that besides an economic relationship, there is also a strategic one. He explained that “There is a basic strategic logic – that if you look at the Eurasian landmass, there are 3 big countries (Russia, China and India). It is a one-o-one in international relations, that a country will always maintain the balance in relationship with the country which is your immediate neighbour’s neighbour – and do so in very good stead.”

“So, there is a strategic logic, there is an economic fit, and the relationship overall has had a very positive history, so that is how it is viewed,” Mr Jaishankar reiterated.

BREAKTHROUGH WITH CHINA

Mr Jaishankar today added to what India’s foreign secretary said earlier in the day about a “positive outcome” emerging from the standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control, saying Indian and Chinese soldiers will be able to resume patrolling in the way they had been doing before the border face-off began in May 2020.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced India and China have arrived on a patrolling arrangement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Himalayas, and it can lead to disengagement and resolution of tension.

“We reached an agreement on patrolling, and we have gone back to the 2020 position. With that we can say the disengagement with China has been completed. Details will come out in due course,” Mr Jaishankar told NDTV World.

“There are areas which for various reasons after 2020, they blocked us, we blocked them. We have now reached an understanding which will allow patrolling as we had been doing till 2020,” Mr Jaishankar explained.

The breakthrough came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia to attend the BRICS summit tomorrow.

INDIA’S NEIGHBOURHOOD FIRST POLICY

Speaking about how India’s highest priority has always been about fostering good relations with its neighbours, Mr Jaishanakr emphasised that New Delhi has always played a positive and friendly part towards its neighbours.

Citing the examples of Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and even Maldives and Bangladesh, the foreign minister gave examples of how India has always tried to build a neighbourhood of cooperation and camaraderie.

Explaining this, Mr Jaishankar said “Our neighbourhood is democratic which means that political changes will keep on happening. We will often be the subject of their politics. We have to factor in that in our policies. If we can create a record of being a country which is a reliable friend in any trouble, if they understand that there’s this country India which is generous, which is large, if we create that record and which I feel we have. During Sri Lanka crisis, we stepped up. Today in Sri Lanka, we have seen a very big change,” said S Jaishankar.

“Bhutan had the wisdom to collaborate on electricity. This is a lesson which everyone should learn,” he said praising the country.

THE ‘JUSTIN TRUDEAU’ PROBLEM

Speaking about ties with Canada, Mr Jaishankar said the Justin Trudeau government seems to have a problem with Indian diplomats trying to find out about what is happening there in relation to India.

Highlighting the Trudeau government’s “double standards” and stressing that saying so is an understatement, Mr Jaishankar said they seem to have different standards for how they behave domestically and how they behave globally.

“Canada has asked us to subject our High Commissioner to a police inquiry and we chose to withdraw our High Commissioner… They seem to have a problem with our diplomats trying to find out about what is happening in Canada which directly pertain to their welfare and security,” he said.

On the other hand, the license they give themselves is “totally different from the restrictions they impose on diplomats in Canada,” he said. “Canadian diplomats have no problem going around on our military or our police, profiling people, targeting people to be stopped in Canada,” he added.

“When we tell them that you have people openly threatening Indian leaders and diplomats, their response is freedom of speech… If you threaten the Indian High Commissioner, he is supposed to accept it as freedom of speech but if an Indian journalist says the Canadian High Commissioner walked out of the South Block looking very grumpy, it is apparently foreign interference,” he added.

VISIT TO PAKISTAN

Towards the end of his interaction at the NDTV World Summit, Mr Jaishankar spoke a line about Pakistan. “India is a good SCO member. We were very supportive of Pakistan’s presidency this year and wanted the proceeding to be smooth. Haath milaya aur aa gaye wapis (shook hands and came back),” he said summing up his visit to Islamabad.
 

New Delhi:

The Indian government is “not aware” of any specific threat against Air India and its passengers, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Monday evening at the NDTV World Summit.

Mr Jaishankar’s remark came hours after Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun – whom the United States believes was the subject of a murder-for-hire plot involving ex-Indian spy Vikas Yadav – released a video statement online warning people not to fly Air India between November 1 and 19.

The threat follows a worrying flood of bomb threats against Indian passenger jets, including those operated by Air India and Air India Xpress; over 100 such threats have been made in the past week.

“I am not aware of any specific threat today… but we have seen threats, in the past, to our airlines, to our Parliament, to our diplomats and High Commissions, and our leaders,” Mr Jaishankar said.

“And all that is a source of concern…” he said.

Jaishankar Jabs Canada

Mr Jaishankar may have sidestepped the question on the threat, but took the opportunity to take more sharp digs at the Canadian government amid a tense diplomatic stand-off over the killing of another Khalistani terrorist – Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen – in Vancouver in June last year.

READ | Nijjar Killing, Bishnoi Gang, Trade Talks: How India-Canada Relations Soured

“These threats are cleverly worded… they (the Canadian government) calls this ‘freedom of speech’. But my question to them is – if you receive these threats would you take them lightly?”

“If it was your airline being threatened, your Parliament, your diplomats… this is exactly the kind of problem with which we started this conversation,” Mr Jaishankar told NDTV.

Earlier in the interview with NDTV’s Sanjay Pugalia, he also spoke of ‘double standards’ in the way Canada treats Indian diplomats and the ‘license’ their officials allowed themselves while in India.

READ | “Difficult To Imagine Current State…”: S Jaishankar On Canada Ties

The Indian government has been fiercely critical of its Canadian counterpart giving space – physical and political – to individuals it considers terrorists with designs against India’s sovereignty.

READ | “Political Agenda Of Trudeau Govt”: India Slams Canada On Nijjar Killing

Last week – after Canadian federal police claimed top Indian diplomats in that country were working with organised criminal gangs, such as the Lawrence Bishnoi outfit – Delhi pointed out Ottawa had “consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats”. This, Delhi complained, had been “justified in the name of freedom of speech”.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.

New Delhi:

India has outperformed the US markets and emerging markets are, on average, growing at double the rate of developed economies, ace investor Mark Mobius has said.

In a conversation with investor Ramesh Damani at the NDTV World Summit on Monday, Mr Mobius said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s thrust on digital infrastructure and the opening up of the economy has been key to India’s growth.

Mr Mobius, who is the founder of Mobius Capital Partners LLP and is known as the ‘Indiana Jones of emerging market investing’, said, “I always think of India as the United States of India, because there are different states. It’s mind-boggling – you are one nation but you are speaking different languages and even the written languages are different. The first thing he (PM Modi) did was unify the tax system. This is an incredible accomplishment. This is something that probably would have taken a century.”

The investor said India’s diversity results in incredible creativity and the future belongs to those who are creative.

“I definitely think India is going to become a leader or the leader in semiconductor production in the future. One reason I say that is the demand – you have got a market here that is one of the biggest in the world. Secondly, it is a relatively open economy, so you are going to be able to take technology from Taiwan, China, the United States, wherever. Thirdly, you have got an incredible software industry already, you are the largest exporter of software in the world,” Mr Mobius said, adding that many large semiconductor companies already have software bases in India.

The investor said semiconductor fabrication will happen in India because the country has the labour force. 

“I remember I was meeting an Indian friend of mine a few years ago and I said India will become a big semiconductor manufacturer. He said Indians are not as patient and not so good with small things like the Chinese are and I asked him if he had seen the places where they are polishing these tiny diamonds in India. They will do a very good job here, no questions about it. But it will require a huge amount of capital,” he added.

In terms of return on capital, it’s “India, China and the US”, Mr Mobius said, adding that India still presents plenty of opportunities despite stock prices climbing. 

As the conversation moved to lighter topics, the investor said he likes the ‘Baahubali’ movies and also had a picture taken with a statue of the villain from the movies in Hyderabad.