'India one with golden heart': Jaishankar traces journey; how world lauded Vaccine Maitri

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted how in the 75 years of independence, the world was speaking to India like never before. Jaishankar took the opportunity to tell the story of India's journey from the 18th century when it accounted for about a quarter of the global GDP, to the '20s when the shackles of colonialism ensured that we were the poorest among the countries, and now when it stands proudly as the 5th biggest economy of the world and still rising. 

"As the strongest, most enthusiastic, and definitely, the most argumentative democracy, our development rests on an expansive digital public infrastructure, designed to promote the idea--no one is left behind. In recent days, our digital technology has successfully advanced our food safety net to 800 million, more than 300 billion dollars of benefits have been distributed digitally, 400 million people get food regularly and we have administered over 200 million vaccines, the secret of that is indeed digital," Jaishankar said. 

The EAM further said, "India today envisions itself as a developed country by 2047, 100 years of our independence. We dream of digitizing our most remote villages and landing on the moon, perhaps even digitizing it." 

'Our development inseparable from the rest of the world...'

Highlighting India's belief that its development is inseparable from the rest of the world, Jaishankar reminded that the country was one of the founding members of the UN. Coming to the partnership, he called India-UN Development Partnership Fund 'particularly symbolic' because of it being the first-ever single country 'south-south initiative'. "It extends to 66 projects in 51 countries," he said. 

Going on to explain the multi-faceted partnership with the UN, he said India's contribution is significantly reflected in the arena of peacekeeping, with over a quarter of a million personnel, 'the largest by any country'. He further said that India has enabled two major initiatives for global climate action.

Speaking about the International Solar Alliance with France in 2015, he noted that today, it has over 100 members and added that the second such project is the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure in which India is the founder member. “At the COP26 last year, we helped to launch further initiatives under these two platforms like the “One Sun, One World, One Grid" – Green Grids Initiative and the “Infrastructure for the Resilient Island States” initiative," he said.

COVID & Vacine Maitri: 'India- one with the golden heart' 

Calling the COVID-19 pandemic an unprecedented global crisis, Jaishankar highlighted how India when needed, first responded with vaccines, delivered to Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America besides the neighbourhood. "This morning, at the India@75 event, a Foreign Minister said that she carried Vaccine Maitri inside her. Another, also from the global south noted that while India may be the 5th largest economy, it was one with the largest heart. How can you not have a good day after that!" the EAM said, sharing a video on Twitter.