Narendra Modi: evaluation

Transcript context

…There are many factors to my decision making. First, I’m perhaps the only politician in India who has stayed overnight in around 85 to 90% of the districts across the country. This was before my current role. I used to travel extensively. I learned a lot from those experiences. They gave me firsthand knowledge of the ground realities and grassroots level issues, not something asked or heard or learned merely from books. Secondly, from a governance perspective, I carry no baggage of any kind. I don’t carry any baggage that weighs me down or forces me to act a certain way. Thirdly, I have a simple yardstick for decisions. My country first. I always question if what I’m doing harms my nation in any way. Additionally, Mahatma Gandhi once said that, if you’re ever unsure when making a decision, think of the poorest person’s face. Remember them and ask yourself, “Will this help them?” Then your decision will be right. That wisdom always guides me, remembering ordinary citizens and considering how my actions affect them. Another factor in my approach is that I’m very well-connected in my administration. My officials know this well and probably feel overwhelmed by it, by the fact that my information channels are numerous and are very active. Because of that, I receive lots of insights from various sources. So when someone comes to brief me, that’s not my only source of information. I always have additional perspectives available to me. Another thing, I maintain a learner’s mindset. Suppose I’m not familiar with something and an official explains it to me. I approach them like a student and ask, “Can you clarify this? How does it work? Then what happens next and how?” Whenever I have different information, I deliberately play devil’s advocate and ask challenging questions. I thoroughly analyze the issue from multiple angles, hoping that careful evaluation will yield something valuable. Then once I converge toward a decision or action that is worth taking, I share the idea informally with like-minded people just to gauge their reactions and see how they respond, gathering insights and feedback before moving forward, until finally, I have a strong conviction that my decision is right. This entire decision-making process doesn’t actually take much time. My speed is very fast. Let me share an example. How did I make decisions during COVID? I had Nobel Prize winners advising me, giving countless economic examples from around the world. They’d say, “This country is doing this, that country did that. You should do it too.” Renowned economists constantly bombarded me with suggestions. Political parties pressured me relentlessly, urging me to spend huge amounts of money, but I didn’t act immediately. I paused and reflected. What exactly should I do? Then considering the unique conditions of my own country, I made a clear decision. I wouldn’t let the poor sleep hungry. I wouldn’t allow social tensions to arise over basic daily needs. should I do? Then considering the unique conditions of my own country, I made a clear decision. I wouldn’t let the poor sleep hungry. I wouldn’t allow social tensions to arise over basic daily needs. These core principles guided my approach. The entire world was in lockdown. Global economies were collapsing. Everyone pressured me to empty the treasury, print more currency and flood money everywhere, but I decided that this was not the right economic route to follow. And so instead, the path I chose, after carefully listening to experts, understanding their opinions without opposing them and combining their advice with my own country’s situation and my personal experiences, created a system that worked effectively. As a result, when the whole world suffered from severe inflation immediately after COVID, India did not. Today, my country is steadily advancing at a rapid pace, emerging as one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. The main reason is that during that crisis, with patience and discipline, I resisted the temptation to apply every global theory blindly. We didn’t worry about what newspapers would say, whether they’d praise or criticize. Ignoring all that, I stayed focused on basic fundamentals, and by doing so, we succeeded and kept moving ahead. So ultimately, my economy benefited as well. My approach has always been to stay focused on these fundamentals. Another strength is my risk-taking capacity. I don’t worry about potential losses for myself. If something is right for my country, for the people, I’m always prepared to take the risk. Secondly, I take ownership of my decisions. If something goes wrong, I don’t ship blame to others. I stand up, take responsibility, and own the outcome. When you take ownership, your team also becomes deeply committed. They know this person won’t let us down, won’t abandon us. He’ll always stand with us because they see I’m making honest decisions, not for myself, but for the nation. I’ve openly told the country from the start, I’m human. I can make mistakes, but I won’t act with bad intentions. People remember those words clearly. Even if something doesn’t go as planned, they trust that Modi’s intentions were right. They think he probably meant to do something good even if it didn’t work out. So society sees and accepts me just as I am. You gave a powerful speech on AI a few weeks ago at the AI Summit in France. In it you spoke about the talent pool for AI engineers in India. I think it’s probably one of the biggest pools of brilliant engineers in the world. So how can India become the leader in the space of AI? Currently lags behind the United States. What does it take for India to start winning and leading the world in AI?…

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