Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi receives a warm welcome in New York, Sept. 24. (PIB)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a video address at ‘Global Citizen Live,’ a 24-hour event, held Sept. 25-26. It involved live events in major cities including Mumbai, New York, Paris, Rio De Janeiro, Sydney, Los Angeles, Lagos and Seoul.

Modi talked about the challenge of the pandemic to illustrate how we are stronger and better when we are together. “We saw glimpses of this collective spirit when our COVID-19 warriors, doctors, nurses, medical staff gave their best in fighting the pandemic. We saw this spirit in our scientists and innovators, who created new vaccines in record time. Generations will remember the manner in which human resilience prevailed over everything else,” said the Indian Prime Minister.

In addition to COVID, Modi said, poverty remains the most persistent of the challenges. He noted that poverty cannot be fought by making the poor more dependent on governments. Poverty can be fought when the poor start seeing governments as trusted partners. “Trusted partners who will give them the enabling infrastructure to forever break the vicious circle of poverty,” said Modi.

The Prime Minister explained that when power is used to empower the poor, they get the strength to fight poverty. He enumerated measures like banking the unbanked, providing social security coverage to millions, giving free and quality healthcare to 500 million Indians, as examples of empowering the poor.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi receives a warm welcome in New York, Sept. 25. (PIB)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi receives a warm welcome in New York, Sept. 25. (PIB)

Talking about 30 million houses built for the homeless in the cities and villages, Modi insisted that a house is not only about shelter. ‘A roof over the head gives people dignity,’ he said. This and the mass movement to provide drinking water connection to every household, spending over a trillion dollars for next-generation infrastructure, free food grains being provided to 800 millions of the citizens and several other efforts will give strength to the fight against poverty, Modi said.

Modi also discussed the threat of climate change and said that “the simplest and most successful way to mitigate climate change is to lead lifestyles that are in harmony with nature.”

Calling Mahatma Gandhi one of the “greatest environmentalists of the world” the Prime Minister elaborated how Bapu led a zero carbon footprints lifestyle. “In whatever he did, Gandhi ji put the welfare of our planet above everything else.”

Modi highlighted the doctrine of trusteeship propounded by the Mahatma, ‘where we all are trustees of the planet with the duty of caring for it.’  The Prime Minister informed that India is the only G-20 nation that is on track with its Paris commitments. India is also proud to have brought the world together under the banner of the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, said the Prime Minister.