An Epitome of Leadership and Achievements
India is presenting a new way of leadership and achievement in front of the world. And Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the face of it. India recently passed on its G20 presidency after a successful tenure, attracting a lot of praise and manifesting its leadership capabilities on the global stage. India's presidency for the G20 Summit saw the Delhi Declaration achieve '100 percent consensus' on issues, including the war in Ukraine.
As far as achievement is concerned, the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) tops the chart. When the current union government started its first term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi heated up the talks of digital payments, it was not well received in the parliament, to say the least. Today, even the pushcart vendors in the remotest of villages accept digital payments. If innovation transforming a country was a technology, it would surely look like India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the instant payment system developed in India and now getting exported across the globe. India does more digital transactions today than that of the US, China, and Europe put together.
India's success in digital transactions can be traced back to the launch of digital India in 2015. Recently, Minister of State for Information and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar reminisced about this success and the prime minister's vision. Addressing World Bank Digital Economy Conclave 2023, Rajeev said, "In 2015, through the launch of Digital India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set unconventional expectations through three broad goals - technology should improve the lives of citizens, impact governance and democracy and further expand and create an architecture for an innovative economy. Over the past nine years, India has taken the lead in creating technologies as opposed to being a mute spectator and consumer of technology." India continues to show the world that strong self-reliance while being able to collaborate with everyone is a strong success formula.
I congratulate all the leaders and achievers featured in this yearly special issue.