New Delhi: India’s rise as an economic superpower attracted the world; global leaders, economists, and business tycoons have all praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
In 2024, the country’s ascension on the global stage was highlighted by the eminent personalities of India’s remarkable progress, with the world increasingly recognising the country as a growth engine, a technological innovator, and a leader in sustainability. Over the years, the statements from the global leaders demonstrate the consistency of this praise. For instance, in 2021, Mark Widmar, the CEO of First Solar, said that every country should do what India was doing with climate change. In 2017, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that PM Modi is always very receptive; he is open and very smart. In 2023, Hassan Allam, CEO of Hassan Allam Holdings, lauded PM Modi’s leadership and said that under PM Modi’s leadership, India’s private sector grew tremendously, especially in the world of infrastructure, engineering, and manufacturing.
Toshihiro Suzuki, President of Suzuki Motors, praises PM Modi’s strong leadership and says, “In the past 10 years, under the strong leadership and constant support of PM Modi, for manufacturing industries, the Indian automobile market has been expanding steadily. As a result, India has become the third-largest automobile market in the world.”
Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub, “When I compare India back then and today, there’s incredible energy; things are moving and evolving. There was no Metro then, and now we have multiple lines. The airport is phenomenal, modern, and clean. I think that is also a reflection of what’s happening in the software industry. There are a huge number of software developers already in India.” India’s growing stature as a tech hub is also evident in the words of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who lauded India’s expertise in artificial intelligence and computer science. He said, “India is home to some of the world’s greatest computer scientists. So, this is a great opportunity. Artificial Intelligence is also a new industry, a new manufacturing industry that is very important, and so I’m looking forward to partnering with India in a very deep way to make that possible.”
Christopher J. Elias, Foundation President, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, lauding India’s growth story, said, “Other countries can use India’s successful digital public infrastructure model to help achieve their healthcare and other development goals.” Highlighting the progress of India’s DPI, he said, “One area of particular accomplishment in India that I think can be a good model for the world to follow is digital public infrastructure that has helped achieve a lot of progress in financial services, health, etc.”
Bill Gates said that he is bullish on the future of India. Lauding PM Modi’s leadership in digital public infrastructure and transforming the rural economy, he said, “This idea of digital connections that starts with Aadhaar and the bank accounts that you manage digitally, that’s flourishing. And so we see in agriculture now that they are registering the farmers and giving them advance notice. And so Indian leadership is something other countries should benefit from.” Paul Romer, Nobel Laureate in Economics, praised India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). He said, “Aadhaar is the most important technological system in the world right now. I think one of the first things is that the other countries in the Digital South should say to themselves, If India can do it, we can do it too. Countries need to have the confidence and the ambition to try something that hasn’t been tried before, the way India did by creating the Aadhaar number.” Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister of Vietnam, said,“Over the past 10 years, under the leadership of PM Modi, India has become the 5th largest economy in the world, one of the top powers with a significant global role, and has made its mark.”
