JOHANNESBURG: Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a compelling address at the G20 summit here on Saturday, advocating for sustainable and inclusive economic progress while outlining four key initiatives. Central to his remarks was a strong call for international collaboration to dismantle the interconnected threats of drug trafficking and terrorism, which he described as a profound risk to public health, societal stability, and national security, as well as a major funding mechanism for terrorist activities.
Modi highlighted the urgent need to reassess traditional benchmarks for economic development, arguing that current models have marginalized large swaths of the global population from essential resources and accelerated environmental degradation. As the host nation for the first G20 summit on African soil, he underscored the continent’s disproportionate suffering from these imbalances. “With Africa now leading the G20 for the first time, it is essential that we rethink our approaches to development,” Modi stated, crediting his pivotal role in securing permanent G20 membership for the African Union during the New Delhi summit two years prior.
Drawing on the philosophy of “integral humanism”—a concept linked to BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya—Modi envisioned a holistic framework integrating individuals, communities, and the natural world to foster genuine balance between advancement and ecological preservation. Among his proposals, he advocated establishing a worldwide repository of traditional knowledge, inspired by India’s own knowledge systems, to safeguard humanity’s shared intellectual heritage for posterity.
To bolster global health security, Modi suggested forming a multinational team of G20 experts capable of rapid deployment during health crises or natural calamities. His speech wove in India’s ancient civilizational principles as a lens for reimagining progress, emphasizing their relevance in addressing modern challenges.
Turning focus to Africa, Modi stressed the mutual benefits of capacity-building through skill-sharing. He introduced the “G20-Africa Skills Multiplier Initiative,” a “train-the-trainers” program spanning multiple industries, backed by G20 funding and expertise. “Our shared ambition is to certify one million trainers in Africa within the next decade,” he explained. These professionals would then empower millions of youth, amplifying local capabilities and driving the continent’s enduring growth.
Modi praised South Africa’s G20 presidency for advancing priorities like skilled migration, tourism, food security, artificial intelligence, digital economies, innovation, and gender equality, building on landmark decisions from the New Delhi gathering. On the scourge of narcotics, he spotlighted the alarming proliferation of potent drugs such as fentanyl, which undermines health systems, erodes social order, and bolsters terror networks. A unified G20 strategy, he argued, should harness financial, regulatory, and security tools to erode the economic foundations of this illicit trade.
In a bid to secure supply chains for green transitions, Modi floated the G20 Critical Minerals Circularity Initiative, promoting innovations in recycling, urban mining, and battery repurposing. This effort, he noted, would curb reliance on extractive mining, ease supply pressures, and benefit ecosystems—while countering geopolitical vulnerabilities, particularly China’s dominance in rare earths. It could spur collaborative research, standardized technologies, and demonstration projects in developing nations.
Modi warned against fragmented resilience efforts, urging the G20 to integrate nutrition, healthcare, eco-friendly farming, and emergency planning into a fortified global shield. Finally, he proposed a G20 Open Satellite Data Partnership to democratize space-derived insights, rendering data from member states’ agencies more accessible and adaptable for Global South countries. “Space technology must serve all of humankind,” he affirmed.