India's growth is back, both in numbers and spirit: S. Jaishankar
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During a visit to the Indian pavilion at the Expo 2020 Dubai on Saturday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that he saw signs that India's economy is faring well, and the growth is back.
"It is seen not only in numbers reported by the companies, but also on the streets, in spirit," he said during his address to the media here while commending the efforts of the team that's seen a pavilion footfall of over 300,000 since it was inaugurated on October 1 by Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
"There are two parallel processes going on at the moment," he said while referring to India's Covid as well as economic recoveries.
"Both are showing resilience in different forms. In terms of lives and livelihoods, the next few months and years will really show who has been more resilient and who has perhaps not been that much," he added, highlighting that India recently crossed 1.1 billion vaccination shots.
"The pace is continuing and there has been confidence that in the next few weeks, all the eligible people will get two shots (of Covid vaccine). It will leave us in a good shape to tackle any future mis-happenings that may take place," Jaishankar said before shifting his focus on economy.
"I would say we are well poised and part of the reason is that a lot of effort went into creating the capacities to handle Covid -- hospitals, ventilators and even the vaccination drive. Part of it is also because of the resilience and foresight with which we responded," he said.
"We husbanded our resources well and reacted in a balanced and right manner. We recovered and at the same time we recovered in a very responsible manner. So, that creates a fair degree of confidence and optimism in India as we look into 2022. I would certainly hope that in a country like the UAE, which is a great friend, it will certainly get reflected.
"And this is already getting reflected in our trade figures. This year may actually be one of our best years in trade. Trade recovery has been very strong and we don't think that it is just because of pent-up demand. The recovery remains very strong," said Jaishankar, indicating at India's signigicant drop in recent Covid cases as the country registered 11,850 new cases on Saturday, just a 0.03 per cent rise in week-on-week numbers.
Jaishankar also spoke about his expectations from the recent meeting of the new QUAD that includes the UAE, Israel, India and the US.
"It was a hybrid meeting. Two of us were together and two of us joined virtually. We must have a follow-up session so that we agree on exactly how we want to go forward. The follow-up meeting will be taking place in the coming weeks," he elaborated.
He also visited the UAE and Israeli pavilions, accompanied by Ambassador of India to the UAE, Pavan Kapoor, and the Consul General of India in Dubai, Aman Puri.
