ET GBS 2023: Earlier, India was among fragile 5. Now, it is treated as anti-fragile, says PM Modi

I greet and welcome the business leaders who have come from all over the country and the world.

Earlier, I had the opportunity to attend the ET Global Business Summit on March 6, 2020. Though a period of three years is not very long, if we look at this specific period, it seems the whole world has come a long way. When we met last time, masks were not a part of everyday life. People used to think vaccines are necessary for children or for patients suffering from a serious disease. Many people had also made preparations for vacations during the summer holidays. But the WHO (World Health Organization) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic just five days after the ET GBS of 2020. And in no time, the entire world changed.

In these three years, the entire world has changed, global systems have changed, and India has also changed. In the recent past, we all have heard a lot of discussions on the interesting concept of 'anti-fragile'. You are the global leaders of the business world. You are well versed with the meaning and spirit of 'anti-fragile'. A system that not only combats adverse conditions, but also emerges stronger using those conditions!

When I heard about the 'anti-fragile' concept for the first time, the first thing that came to my mind was the collective resolve of 140 crore Indians. When the world was bracing for the challenges of Corona, war and natural calamities in the last three years, India and its people displayed an unprecedented strength. India has demonstrated to the world what it means to be anti-fragile. Where earlier there used to be talk of Fragile Five, now India is being identified with anti-fragile. India has convincingly shown the world how to convert calamities into opportunities.

The theme of this year's ET GBS is 'Reimagine Business, Reimagine the World'. By the way, I don't know whether this 'Reimagine' theme is only for others or for opinion makers as well. Will they apply it too? Most of the opinion makers in our country are busy in launch, re-launch and re-re-launch of the same product every six months. Interestingly, they don't even re-imagine during the re-launch.

This (reimagine) is a very relevant theme in present times. The first thing that we did was to reimagine when the country gave us the opportunity to serve. Such was the situation in 2014 that the reputation of the country was at stake due to scams worth lakhs of crores. The poor were also yearning for basic needs they were entitled to due to corruption. Aspirations of the youth were being sacrificed at the altar of nepotism. Infrastructure projects were getting delayed for years due to policy paralysis. It was difficult for the country to move forward rapidly with such a thinking and approach.

Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/et-gbs-2023-earlier-india-was-among-fragile-5-now-it-is-treated-as-anti-fragile-says-pm-modi/articleshow/98071257.cms