New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the opening speech at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday and laid down the biggest threats to mankind as he saw it.
Highlights:
Climate change
Glaciers are receding, ice caps are melting in the Arctic, islands are sinking or are about to sink. It is extremely hot at times and unusually cold on other occasions. There are floods. We can see the influence of extreme weather conditions. Snow in Davos is more than usual, never seen such snow in 20 years. Must come out of our narrow confines. What can we do together to improve the situation? Everyone talks about reducing carbon emissions but few countries back their words with resources, very few come forward to help. About two and a half thousand years ago, Lord Buddha gave consumption as per needs a key place among his principles. Mahatma Gandhi said we need to consume and enjoy things as per our needs and was against greed based exploitation. We are now looking at greed based consumption and are focusing only on our own happiness. Has this been development or our downfall? There needs to be harmony between man and nature. Yoga will heal fissures between man and nature and also help in physical, spiritual well-being.
Terrorism
You are aware of India’s concerns. All governments are well aware of this challenge. I want to focus on two aspects related to this, terrorism is dangerous, but equally dangerous is the artificial difference created between good and bad terrorists. Educated, well-to-do youth are being radicalised.
Protectionism
Many societies and countries are becoming more and more focused on themselves, it feels like the opposite of globalisation is happening. It can’t be considered less dangerous than terrorism and climate change; globalisation is losing its original essence. Everyone talks about inter-connected world but globalisation is slowly losing its lustre. Bilateral negotiations have come to a standstill. New tariff barriers are being introduced to stop globalisation and protectionism is being practiced by many countries.
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