Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a new ‘Aarogya Maitri’ project under which India will provide essential medical supplies to any developing country affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crisis.
India will also establish a ‘Global-South Center of Excellence’ to undertake research on development solutions or best-practices of any developing nation, which can be scaled and implemented in other members of the Global South, the PM said at the Concluding Leaders’ Session of the two-day virtual ‘Voice of Global South Summit’ on Friday.
During the Covid pandemic, India’s ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative supplied made-in-India vaccines to over 100 nations, the PM pointed out indicating that ‘Aarogya Maitri’ would be continuation of the initiative.
Giving examples of development solutions that India could share, Modi said that digital public goods developed by the country in fields like electronic-payments, health, education, or e-governance, can be useful for many other developing countries.
India has also made great strides in areas like space technology and nuclear energy. We will launch a ‘Global-South Science & Technology initiative’ to share our expertise with other developing nations.
Top leaders and officials from about 120 countries of the ‘Global South’ participated and many shared their priorities and perspectives at the summit on January 12-13. The summit is based on the theme ‘unity of voice, unity of purpose’.
India’s aim is to amplify the voice of the Global South during its G20 presidency this year as its people should no longer be excluded from the fruits of development, Modi said in his address on Thursday.
Modi, on Friday, also proposed a ‘Global-South Young Diplomats Forum’, to connect youthful officers of our foreign ministries and to synergise the country’s diplomatic voice.
“India will also institute ‘Global-South Scholarships’ for students from developing countries to pursue higher education in India,” he said.