India-Middle East-Europe corridor will become basis of world trade for centuries: PM Modi

PTI, Sep 24, 2023, 2:38 PM IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Sunday that the India-Middle East-Europe corridor will become a basis of world trade for the coming hundreds of years and history will remember that it was envisioned in India.

In his monthly Mann ki Baat broadcast, Modi recalled the ”Silk route”, an ancient trade corridor used by India when it was a prosperous and great trading power, and said the country made the suggestion of the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor at the recent G20 Summit.

”This corridor is going to become the basis of world trade for hundreds of years to come, and history will always remember that this corridor was initiated on Indian soil,” he said.

The successful summit after the success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission doubled every citizen’s happiness, he said while noting that the two accomplishments have figured most in the messages he has received from people. India’s leadership was acknowledged by the world as it succeeded in making the African Union a member of the G20, he said. Bharat Mandapam, the venue which hosted the G20 Summit, has become a ”celebrity”, the prime minister said, noting that people have been clicking selfies with the state-of-the-art conference hall.

With Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary falling on October 2, he said no one can forget the sight of world leaders paying homage at his memorial during the G20 Summit, a recognition as to how his ideas remain relevant globally. Modi expressed happiness at many cleanliness programmes being planned to mark his birth anniversary, with the Union government departments launching ‘Swachhta hi sewa’ programme.

Noting that a big cleanliness programme will be organised at 10 am on October 1, he urged people to join the exercise in their neighbourhood or any public place.

It will be a true tribute to Gandhi ji, he said and asked people to buy some khadi products.

Noting that the World Tourism Day falls on September 27, he said tourism is said to create maximum employment with minimum investment, adding that goodwill matters a lot in drawing tourists.

India’s goodwill has risen over the last few years, he said, and it has only gone up further with the G20 meetings as over one lakh foreign delegates travelled to different parts of the country and witnessed its diversity, cuisines and heritage.

”The wonderful experiences that the delegates who came here have carried back with them will further expand tourism,” he said.

Modi said it was a matter of immense pride that Santiniketan associated with Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and the Hoysala temples of Karnataka were recently declared world heritage sites.

Such sites number now 42 in India and it is the country’s efforts to have more and more places associated with its culture and heritage recognised as the World Heritage Sites.

Ahead of the start of festival season, he asked people to remember ‘vocal for local’ and buy ‘Made in India’ products. ”As far as possible, you should buy goods made in India, use Indian products and gift only Made in India goods. Your little joy will become the cause of immense happiness for someone else’s family. Whatever Indian goods you buy, our labourers, workers, craftspersons and other artisans will directly benefit from it,” he said.

In his remarks, Modi expressed happiness at the way students associated themselves with the G20 event.

Throughout the year, programmes related to the G20 were held in many universities of the country. ”In this series now, another exciting program is going to happen in Delhi – the ‘G20 University Connect Programme’. Many prestigious institutions like IITs, IIMs, NITs and medical colleges will also participate. If you are a college student, you must watch this programme on September 26 and join it. I myself will attend the programme,” he said.

While hailing the success of Chandrayaan-3, Modi noted that ”More than 80 lakh people watched this incident on ISRO’s YouTube Live Channel; which is a record in itself. This conveys how deep the attachment of crores of Indians is to Chandrayaan-3”.

Indian culture and music, he said, have now become global. The fascination of people all over the world towards them is increasing day by day, he said while sharing a short clip of a 21-year-old German woman Kasmi.

Kasmi, who is visually impaired, has never been to India but was fascinated by its music from an early age, he said, lauding her.

The most inspiring thing is that she has mastered singing in many Indian languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Urdu and has also mastered her notes in all of them, he said.

In the programme, the prime minister also praised a group of youths in Nainital for starting ‘Ghoda Library’, aimed at taking books to children living in remote villages so that they could read poems, stories and moral education books apart from school books. In Hyderabad, 11-year-old Akarshana Satish studying in class 7 is running seven libraries for children, he said while citing examples of people working to save wild animals and pigeons.

In Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district, he noted people have joined hands to revive the Sot river.

”By walking on the path of duty, you too can become the medium of many such changes around you,” Modi said.