Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal asked businesses to adopt a sustainable and green approach in business practices. He asked them to use the forum of B20 along with G20 to look at how we can collectively work towards a sustainable and equitable future agenda. He was addressing the Inception Meeting of Business 20 (B20), the official G20 dialogue forum with the global business community in Gandhinagar today.
Shri Goyal paid his tributes to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on his birth Anniversary today and said that he was one of the leading lights of our freedom struggle. The Minister said that Netaji envisioned a nation where every single citizen of the nation had a share in its prosperity.
The Minister applauded the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, of peace and dialogue, orderly and inclusive growth and humane approach and said that India wanted to be a responsible global citizen, be it in the sphere of climate change or digital public infrastructure. Shri Goyal said that through the theme of G20 in India- ‘one earth one family one future’ - we wished to inspire the world to care for each other, to have a greater degree of dialogue and greater concern for the planet and the future of our children.
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, he said that we had inherited this world as trustees and it is our duty to leave behind a better world for next generation. We have to respect intergenerational equity- we do not have the right to use up all the resources of this planet, he added.
The Minister highlighted that India had always stood for sustainable development. He mentioned that it was one of the top 5 countries in the world in terms of adopting and implementing environmental goals. India regularly files UNFCCC report and has already exceeded its goal for 2030, of having a 40 percent share of renewable energy in its installed capacity in 2021. India takes each sustainable development goal very seriously, he said.
Speaking of India’s amazing journey of growth, Shri Goyal said that India had grown almost 12 times in the last three decades inspite of several black swan events. He added that transformational steps had been taken by the government to take inclusive growth to every section of society without discrimination and to the remotest corners of the nation.
The Minister noted that the Prime Minister had relentlessly focussed on 4 ‘I’s of investment in infrastructure, integrity, inclusive development and international outlook to lend wings to Indian economy. He spoke of some of the transformational initiatives of the government. He said that the Digital India Mission had ensured that the levels of connectivity we have in telecom today and what is being planned over the next 2 years would catapult us to amongst the top 5 or 6 countries in terms of technology. It will help us achieve inclusive economic growth smartly.
He stressed that the government had succeeded in securing the basic needs of life such as food, shelter, clothing, education, healthcare etc. to people, enabling, empowering and inspiring them to aspire for the better things in life. He noted that even during the heights of the pandemic, no death due to starvation had taken place in the country, thanks to several government initiatives including the mission to provide more than adequate foodgrains to almost 800 million across the country. He underscored that India had the world’s largest and successful free healthcare program, covering 500 million people. He said that 35 million families who were at the bottom of the pyramid, who were the most deserving, yet the most deprived, have been given homes with all the basic amenities. He added that the government had also succeeded in raising farmers’ income.