Very focused on delivery: Carney praises PM Modi’s leadership, seeks stronger India ties

Washington- Mark Carney has praised Narendra Modi for his leadership and governance, highlighting the Indian leader’s relentless work ethic and focus on delivering benefits to ordinary citizens while signalling Canada’s intent to strengthen ties with India.

Speaking at the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Wednesday (local time), Carney described Modi as a highly disciplined leader with an intense political schedule.

“There's, look, the guy's, he's unique. I would say, you know, 25 years, and he has not taken a day off, 25 years straight as either chief minister in Gujarat or prime minister, not one day off,” Carney said while recalling his recent interactions with the Indian leader.

He also highlighted Modi’s extensive political outreach across the country.

“Every weekend he is out campaigning, he gets 250,000 people at his rallies,” Carney said, pointing to the Prime Minister’s ability to mobilise large public support.

Carney said his meetings with Modi provided insight into the governance philosophy behind India’s economic reforms and digital transformation, especially efforts aimed at directly benefiting ordinary citizens.

“He's a person who is very focused on delivery, I'll call it to the rural household, but, you know, to the person on the street,” he said.

He also referred to India’s financial and technological reforms, including the country’s digital payment system Unified Payments Interface (UPI), noting that such initiatives were designed to ensure direct benefit transfers and reduce leakages in public spending.

“A huge motivation for the financial reform transformations, the payment system transformation, UPI and other things was to get money directly to individuals without leakage in the system in real time, and to bring people, hundreds of millions of people, into the formal economy,” Carney said.

Carney added that he was impressed by Modi’s emphasis on maintaining a grassroots perspective even while engaging in global diplomacy.

“Here he is, you know, up at this global level, operating India Rising, much positive. But a leader who keeps bringing it back down to that level,” he said, referring to the Prime Minister’s focus on everyday concerns of citizens.

The Canadian leader also said India’s strategic outlook had long anticipated shifts in the global geopolitical order.

“Their attitude would be, well, what took you so long to figure that out? I mean, we've been non-aligned since regaining independence in 1947,” he remarked.

Carney indicated that Canada sees strong potential for cooperation with India in emerging technologies and strategic sectors, particularly artificial intelligence.

“There’s a variety of aspects around AI where we would cooperate with India, in part because we need to build resilience in AI,” he said.

He also acknowledged that relations between the two countries had faced challenges in recent years but stressed that both governments were working to rebuild the partnership.

“We've made a lot of progress in the last 11 months with India both economically, but also in the broader security relationship. More to be done without question,” Carney added.

With inputs from IANS