September 30, 2022
NEW DELHI – MurmuNoting that the country’s leadership in several fields has become unchallenged in the world, President Droupadi Murmu today observed that India was now playing an important role in the fight against terrorism as a frontline State.
”The world is looking at India with new admiration. Recent years have witnessed new initiatives in our bilateral and multilateral relations. In several global forums, India has made decisive interventions,” she said when a group of Officer Trainees of the Indian Foreign Service (2021 batch) called on her at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Murmu told the IFS trainees that they were beginning their career in the Service at a time when India has emerged on the world stage with new self-confidence.
India’s stronger position has come on the basis of its economic performance, among other factors. While leading economies of the world were still trying to overcome the effects of the pandemic, India has stood up again and started to move on, she added.
As a result, India’s economy was registering one of the fastest growth rates. In fact, the global economic recovery, to an extent, was dependent on India. The other reason for India’s standing on the world stage was its ethos. ”Our relations with the rest of the world are governed by our age-old values,” the president said.
She said the IFS offered them a unique opportunity to project India’s proud civilisation, heritage, and culture, together with its developmental aspirations, to the rest of the world.
Referring to the changes taking place around the world, the president said that ongoing transformations on multiple fronts offered great opportunities as well as great challenges. ”New technologies give us hopes of better healthcare, for example, but they threaten existing business practices too. We can use technology to reach out to those on the margins. At the same time, technology also resets the security paradigm with new threats. As a nation, we have before us a chance to reset our choices,” she added.