India Global Week 2020: virtual summit focuseson a brighter future post Covid-19 crisis

United Kingdom based media house, India Inc. Group organized a three-day long virtual summit with the narrative “Be the Revival: India and a Better World” from 9th July to 11th July 2020 bringing together over 5000 global participants and 250 speakers across more than 75 sessions, writes Deepika Banerjee

India Global Week 2020, the most extensive international virtual summit on India’s integration with the globalized world served as a platform to have invigorating discussions on the array of business, strategic and cultural avenues that India can offer to the whole world, comprehend the barriers to economic recovery and make constructive decisions as the world gradually emerges from the tenacious grip of the Covid-19 pandemic. The threeday long webinar, an initiative of UK-based media house India Inc. Group that has been working to foster India-UK business relations, held a plethora of sessions on diverse topics namely, geopolitics, business, art and culture, emerging technologies, banking and finance, pharma, defence and security, social impact and the Indian diaspora. The mega virtual seminar also featured dynamic country sessions on Australia, Japan, Singapore, the US and the UK.

Among its more than 250-strong panel of keynote speakers were Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr. S. Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister, Govt. of India; Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Minister of Commerce and Industry, Govt. of India; Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, UK Government; Priti Patel, Secretary of State for Home Department, UK Government;

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking during the virtual summit

Inaugural Speech by Indian PM Narendra Modi

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Leader of the Art of Living Foundation; Steve Waugh, Australian cricket legend and many other prominent personalities from the fields of politics, business, entertainment and culture.

In his virtual inaugural speech on July 9, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi set the stage for the India Global Week 2020 summit by emphasizing on the natural convergence of global revival with Indian revival stemming from the powerhouse of talent possessed by the Indian human resource and India’s inimitable ability to reform and rejuvenate. He also praised the invaluable contributions made by Indian doctors, nurses, lawyers, IT professionals and the hardworking labourers highlighting the two-way synergy created by the Indian diaspora across the world.

Commenting on the unique opportunities provided by India to the world, Modi went on to invite multinational companies to invest in India’s agrarian, defence and pharmaceutical sectors along with the medium and small industries. Ingeminating India’s heightened focus on public health, Modi reinforced India’s resolve to focus equally on the health of the economy.

Hailing India’s potential role in spearheading the global revival post Covid-19 and thereby justifying the theme “Be The Revival: India and a Better New World” of the international summit, he further stated that India’s “aatmanirbhar” (selfreliant) stance should not be deciphered as a decision to close its portals to the global economy but rather to be self-sustaining and self-generating.

His Royal Highness Prince Charles also joined the virtual summit from London

Special Address by the Prince of Wales

His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles also joined the virtual summit from London and stressed on the imperativeness of sustainable development in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. In his special speech, he commented on the significance of Indian philosophies and values in building a congruous relationship between humanity and nature which is primarily necessary for a sustainable lifestyle. He also acknowledged the key role played by Indian diversity and resilience as a source of motivation to him in particular and encouraged everyone to draw valuable lifelessons from them.

UK Foreign Secretary acknowledges India as a strategic partner

Leading an important UK delegation consisting of Home Secretary Priti Patel, Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab appraised the manner in which India and UK are forging cooperation in research and innovation to overcome the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. He also mentioned the joint efforts of UK and India in launching the G20 Action Plan which facilitated the provision of a package of $ 200 billion financial support to the most economically fragile nations of the world. On an optimistic note, Raab hoped that the collaborative efforts of the Oxford University and India’s Serum Institute to develop a Covid-19 vaccine would bear fruit soon.

Indian Minister raises concern about the post pandemic world

Jaishankar during his India Global Week address

Participating in the Indian Global Week 2020 on 11th July, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar expressed his concern about the post pandemic world being a more challenging one with rising discordance and lack of faith between nations. Apart from this, he also laid emphasis on strengthening the resilience of strategic supply chains especially since the Covid-19 crisis has laid bare the lack of robust supply chains. With regard to the rising frictions across the Sino-Indian border, he said that both India and China have agreed on the necessity to disengage and that the de-escalation process has fortunately started. However, tracing the trend of growing ties between India and the US, the minister is hopeful that the bilateral ties between the two democracies will continue to grow even stronger.

Australian Cricket legend Steve Waugh reminisces India tours

From the sporting world, Steve Waugh, former Australian cricket team skipper joined the mega event and expressed his love for India reminiscing about the times when he toured India. He mentioned how he found India “interesting” and “fascinating”. Hailing the Border-Gavaskar trophy-a Test series played between India and Australia- as being “equivalent” to the Ashes, a popular Test series held between Australia and arch-rival England, he said that this indicated the growing, healthy competition between the cricketing giants India and Australia. Waugh is all set to launch a book which captures the Indian people’s near-religious ardour for the game of cricket and his primary objective is to astound the world by showcasing the passion which Indians harbor for cricket.