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India Completes Cashless Payments In A Month, The US Takes Three Years: S Jaiselankar

On Sunday (local time), the EAM was interacting with members of the Indian community in Nigeria; drawing a comparison, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar stated that India completes more cashless transactions in a month than the United States in three years. This is about the country’s growing digital public infrastructure.

“The life of every Indian citizen has become easier, and this is because we have profoundly embraced technology. You can see this in payment; very few people today pay in cash, and very few accept cash…Today, we do as many cashless payments in India in a month as much as America does in three years,” Mr Jaishankar said at the event.

He went on to identify the five critical instances that best illustrate how India has changed over the past ten years.

“For me, how a country deals with a challenge, recovers from the challenge, and can pose such a strong economic performance, how the life of an average citizen becomes better, how we are capable of something that captures the imagination of the world and how do we look after our people outside the country. These are five true examples of what changed in India in the last decade,” Jaishankar said.

The EAM also praised India for handling the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that many nations cannot deal with its effects and emphasising that New Delhi has brought back seven million of its foreign citizens.

“I take great heart, hope and faith in how India dealt with it. When COVID-19 started, during a virtual meeting in 2020, it was said that India would be most unable to cope with COVID-19. Two years later, I saw that we went through the Covid wave and lockdowns…we started making medicines for the rest of the world,” he said.

Mr Jaishankar emphasised that the Indian economy is expanding at the quickest rate globally. As a result, business confidence in New Delhi has risen, leading to the nation’s most significant investment level ever.

“Today, what is happening in the economy…we are the fastest-growing big economy in the world…but it is much more than that. Today, if you see the economic activity in India, something is being built wherever you go. A metro is being built, a road is being built, new airports are coming up, new trains are coming up, railway stations are coming up. If you go to your village, piped water is coming up, and an electricity connection is coming,” Mr Jaishankar said.

He added, “There is a sense today that India is being built at a fantastic pace, not just being built, that growth rate covers many other things. You can see the flow of investment in India, the highest ever. Look at the business sentiment about India. The real change is the change I see in our people”.

Notably, from January 21 to 23, Mr Jaishankar is visiting Nigeria. He will meet with other leaders and co-chair the 6th India-Nigeria Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) alongside his counterpart during this time.
He had earlier headed the Indian delegation to the 19th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, scheduled in Kampala, Uganda.

On the fringes of the conference, he also met with several foreign dignitaries, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The EAM will also provide a speech at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, meet with CII Business delegations, open the 3rd edition of the Nigeria-India Business Council, and unveil a bust of Mahatma Gandhi.

He will also serve as the chair of the Indian Heads of Missions regional conference. There has long been a close and cordial relationship between Nigeria and India. The statement stated that this is EAM’s first visit to Nigeria and will strengthen bilateral ties between the two nations.

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