New Delhi, October 13: Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a room full of global business leaders on Tuesday that India’s confidence is at an unprecedented height, and that the country’s reforms are something it wants to do, not something it is forced into.

“We are carrying out reforms with a clear policy direction,” PM Modi said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Delhi. “For us, reforms are not a compulsion; reforms are our conviction.”

A world short on trust

The line was familiar, but it landed against a more unusual backdrop. PM Modi spent a good part of his address on what he called a breakdown of trust in the global economy. Supply chains, energy, minerals, payments and technology used to tie countries together, he said. Now they are turning into instruments of pressure. The question hanging over every government, according to PM Modi, is whether it can count on supplies arriving when it needs them.

His answer was that India can be that dependable partner. “In a world full of uncertainties,” he said, “India offers the confidence of reliability and stability.”

The numbers behind the pitch

To back it up, the Prime Minister quoted growth of 7.8 per cent for the April-June quarter and said it sits on a solid base. He also pointed to forex reserves of over $700 billion, a banking system he described as resilient, and better sovereign ratings.

Startups got a mention too. India has more than 2.5 lakh of them now, PM Modi said, and nearly half come from smaller cities. About 45 per cent have a woman as a director or partner.

Reforms and the digital push

On the governance side, he said digital public infrastructure has taken out the middlemen and created a direct line of trust between citizens and the state. He also ticked off the reforms his government counts as milestones: GST, the insolvency law, consolidated labour codes, and the decriminalisation of hundreds of minor business offences.

“We grow with the world”

PM Modi was careful to say India’s rise is not meant to come at anyone else’s expense. “We do not grow at anyone’s cost,” he said. “We grow with the world and for the world.” He called for joint work on artificial intelligence, climate change, public health and water security, and described India as the “Mother of Democracy”, a country of over 100 languages, roughly 80,000 registered newspapers and publications, and more than 500 million users each on YouTube and Instagram.

Who the message was for

The audience was mostly investors and policymakers, so the pitch was pointed. India wants to be seen as a steady hand at a time when plenty of countries are nervous about who they depend on.

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