Modi calls for concensus among nations for inclusive global development

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called for enhancing concensus among nations for an inclusive and sustainable global development as he highlighted his government's "revolutionary" endeavour to make the benefits of technology reach the common people.

Addressing a G20 Summit session, Modi also presented his "5-I" vision to maximise digital technology for social benefit.

"For inclusive and sustainable global development, we have to enhance concensus and understanding among our countries," he said at another session on Technological Innovation.

"In India, we have endeavoured to make the benefits of technology reach the common people. This change has been revolutionary. For financial inclusion, we have used technology through Jan Dhan Yojana (financial inclusion scheme) and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to reach 120 million people," he said.

Launched by the Modi government in 2014, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is one of the world's biggest financial inclusion programmes that aims to expand and make affordable access to financial services such as bank accounts, remittances, credit, insurance and pensions.

Under the DBT initiative, government subsidies are directly transferred to the beneficiaries through their bank accounts.

Earlier, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted, "Shaping the agenda. PM @narendramodi presented his vision of maximising digital technology for society benefit in his intervention at G20 on Digital Economy & AI. The 5 'I's are -- Inclusiveness, Indigenisation, Innovation, Investment in infrastructure & International cooperation."

Modi also discussed leveraging the power of technology with US President Donald Trump.

This is Modi's sixth G20 Summit.

On Thursday also, the Prime Minister underlined his government's focus to develop digital infrastructure while addressing a huge gathering of Indian diaspora in Kobe.

"In the next five years, our target is to make India a five-trillion dollar economy. Social sector remains our top priority. Also we will focus more on infrastructure development, especially digital infrastructure," he said.