Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he joked with his minister François-Philippe Champagne. Carney told Champagne that he draws only 25 people to a rally, while Prime Minister Modi has 2,50,000 people at his rallies, even though both are off the weekend campaigning.
This happened after his visit to India from February 27 to March 2. The four-day official visit, which included time in Mumbai and Delhi, focused on reviving bilateral ties, trade and meeting Prime Minister Modi.
“The guy is unique. He hasn’t taken a day off for 25 years, either as Chief Minister of Gujarat or as Prime Minister,” ANI quoted Carney as saying.
“Every weekend, like you, François-Philippe, he campaigns. He has 250,000 people at his rallies, you have 25, but that’s fine,” he added.
He made the audience laugh during the seminar.
PM Modi ‘very delivery oriented’: Carney
The Canadian Prime Minister praised PM Modi for his strong work ethic and described him as “very focused” on providing benefits to rural households.
“He gave me a hack that anybody would follow, which is a guy who’s very focused on delivery … I’m going to call it a country household,” Carney said.
He particularly pointed to the transformation of India’s payment systems and specifically mentioned the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a major achievement of the current government.
Speaking about his interaction with Prime Minister Modi, Carney said the Indian leader shared what he described as a “hack” anyone can adopt, with a heavy focus on delivery, especially to rural families.
He noted that the driving force behind financial sector reforms, changes in payment systems and initiatives like UPI was to ensure that funds were transferred directly to individuals in real time, thereby reducing leakages in the system. Carney added that these measures have helped bring hundreds of millions of people into the formal economy and stressed that Prime Minister Modi remains deeply committed to this goal.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Prime Minister Modi and Carney deepened cooperation on the supply of critical minerals and uranium, while finalizing terms for talks on a proposed free trade agreement. In addition to signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on critical minerals, India’s Ministry of Atomic Energy and Cameco, one of the world’s largest publicly traded uranium producers, have entered into an agreement to supply 22 million pounds of uranium ore between 2027 and 2035, worth $2.6 billion.
