BELAGAVI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday held discussions on domestic progress and world affairs with intellectuals in Belagavi.
“A nostalgic return to Belagavi after 45 years. Enjoyed discussions with intellectuals on domestic progress & world affairs. Underlined how deeply they are connected, as well as the opportunities they present”, Jaishankar tweeted on Sunday. “Impressed by how Belagavi is getting connected to global supply chains,” the EAM further wrote.
Jaishankar was on a two-day visit to poll-bound Karnataka this weekend. On Sunday, while interacting with intellectuals in Dharwad, he said the world is fascinated with the digitisation of India. “What is the world’s fascination with India today? It is in the digitisation of India”, the EAM said.
“In 2014, six crore people had access to broadband. Today, it is 80 crore. From six it has gone to 80. Internet was used by 25 crore people. It is today 85 crore. We have laid optical fibre cable of 25 lakh kilometres in this country,” Jaishankar said.
“The number of mobile users has crossed 100 crore. We do 800 crore UPI transactions per month. We actually have seven crore authentications per day. So, the world watches this and suddenly for them, this India, which they used to be associated with poverty, with backwardness, with red tape, with bureaucrats, they now have a new vision of this country”, the EAM said while addressing the people of Dharwad.
He said that he has a friend who came back to India for the G20 meeting after five years. “He’s a foreigner. And he told me his biggest impression today is that any place he goes to in India, some infrastructure construction is going on. Road is being built, airport is being extended, railway line is taking place. Metro is coming up. Housing is taking place. So, this sense, this energy, this activity in India, this is something today the world is very, very fascinated by”, the minister said. (ANI)