India
oi-Gaurav Sharma
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday highlighted India’s economic resilience, saying the country’s 7.8 per cent growth in the April-June quarter has emerged as a source of fresh optimism for the world amid growing global uncertainty.
Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, PM Modi said India had delivered strong economic growth despite a challenging international environment marked by geopolitical conflicts, trade tensions and disruptions to energy and commodity supply chains.
Speaking at Mumbai’s Global Fintech Fest, PM Modi highlighted India’s 7.8% Q1 FY24 growth amidst global uncertainty and noted Japan’s rating upgrade, promising faster reforms and international UPI expansion.
According to PM Modi, the strong quarterly growth demonstrates the underlying strength of the Indian economy at a time when several parts of the world continue to face economic and geopolitical pressures.
“Even then, when India grows by 7.8 per cent, the world sees a fresh hope,” the Prime Minister said.
PM Modi also pointed to India’s improving sovereign credit ratings as evidence of rising international confidence in the country’s economic outlook. Referring to Japan’s recent upgrade of India’s sovereign rating to the A category, he said the decision came after nearly three decades and reflected confidence in India’s growth momentum, macroeconomic stability and structural reforms.
The Prime Minister said India would not slow down its reform agenda, signalling that the government intends to push ahead with economic and structural changes at a faster pace.
“India’s reform express will go ahead even faster,” PM Modi said.
He further underlined India’s growing influence in the global digital economy, highlighting the success of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) over the past decade.
PM Modi described India’s fintech journey as “amazing” and said UPI has become an important part of the country’s economic transformation. He stressed that the next phase of India’s digital payments expansion should involve connecting UPI with payment systems in more countries.
Citing India’s integration with Singapore’s payment network, PM Modi said such international linkages can make cross-border transactions as seamless as domestic payments.
The Prime Minister also recalled the early scepticism surrounding India’s digital payments ambitions. He said that when he spoke about a future where people could effectively carry their banks “at their fingertips”, many initially found the vision difficult to believe.
PM Modi’s remarks came as he sought to project India’s economic growth, reform programme and digital infrastructure as key pillars of the country’s expanding role in the global economy.
