India’s Stature On Global Stage Has Grown Significantly, World Expects more from us: EAM Jaishankar

New Delhi, Dec 22: India’s stature on the global stage has grown significantly and the world expects more from us, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic posed an unprecedented challenge that compelled New Delhi to address many issues with even greater urgency and vigour.

In his address at the eighth edition of Good Governance Day celebrations, the EAM said that among the challenges was to keep the supply chains open at a time when many borders were closing.

“Assisting Indian nationals abroad and our diaspora was a massive endeavour as well. Our efforts towards equitable access to vaccines have created a strong solidarity with other nations. Our Missions played an active role in procurement of items, medicines and medical equipment. And the Ministry led from the front in ensuring that our stranded nationals came back home safely,” he added.

He said the MEA’s efforts at facilitating the issue of passports is illustrative of the changes brought since 2014, and referred to the use of post offices, which has made the passport exercise a real case of minimum Government, maximum governance.

On Indian nationals abroad and the diaspora, the MEA has again demonstrated through a ‘whole of the Government’ approach involving different Ministries “that we are there when they really need us” — referring to the Vande Bharat Mission or Operation Devi Shakti. “We are a human-centric Government dedicated to improving ease of living,” he said.

Jaishankar said the celebrations of International Yoga Day and International Ayurveda Day have been extremely effective vehicles to project our civilization’s message.

“Our economic activities also demonstrate the benefits of closer coordination and a broader reach-out. Whether it is the quest for technology, capital or best practices, or indeed the promotion of exports and projects, we have worked effectively with other Ministries to deliver. At a time when the Prime Minister himself has laid out a vision of our economic goals abroad, it is a matter of satisfaction that we have been able to step up performance substantially,” he added.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, in his address on the occasion, said the MEA, like the rest of government and society, was faced with an unprecedented situation during Covid but it “responded with agility, with speed and with scale to the extraordinary challenges that it was confronted with”.

The COVID Cell, that worked 24X7 to coordinate COVID-related operations, was created, which coordinated with diplomatic Missions and multiple stakeholders in India and abroad. It worked on the Vande Bharat Mission – the largest logistical mission of its type ever undertaken. It also worked with the Government of India’s Empowered Groups to mount a global procurement operation to source critical medical supplies during both the first and second waves. The MEA was also represented on the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 and in the Task Force on the COVID-19 vaccines.

“This capacity to react flexibly and to scale up rapidly in a short time will be central to our effectiveness in the years to come. As such, the Covid Cell has now been institutionalised as the Rapid Response Cell in the MEA, a recognition of the long-term responsibility that health emergencies and HADR exigencies will place on our diplomacy,” he added.

He said the Vande Bharat Mission is a case study in governance response to an unexpected challenge. It was a complex inter-agency process that was unprecedented in its size and complexity. The entire population of Indians stranded in hundreds of locations was “mapped” using technology driven applications. They were assigned priorities. Flight schedules and manifests were worked out. The capacity to process arrivals had to be repurposed to pandemic realities. SOPs for handling passengers returning from abroad, including protocols for quarantine etc were generated. Departure processes around the world had to be navigated. These were just some of the challenges that were confronted, the FS added.

“Another contemporary case that demonstrates the need for flexible and rapid response capacity relates to procurement. The country confronted acute and often, crippling, shortages of medical products and essential medical supplies during the pandemic.

The Ministry worked with the Department of Pharmaceuticals and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in facilitating procurement of essential medical equipment required to overcome domestic shortages. Its network of missions and posts around the world were the global arm of this extraordinary procurement, he added.

The Ministry has developed a strong orientation towards economic and business outcomes, he said, adding the economic diplomacy operations of the Ministry are being reengineered and reoriented with a sharper focus on outcomes.

“A contemporary example of this new orientation is our work with the vaccine industry during the second wave of the pandemic. We worked to secure supply chains through diplomatic interventions in important capitals; in securing critical raw materials; in accessing technologies; in obtaining regulatory approvals abroad; and in accessing markets,” the FS said.

Public diplomacy outcomes are another area where Ministry has a strong focus. An entire public diplomacy effort that is coordinated on a global scale has been created to work on promotion of uniquely Indian subjects such as Yoga. International Yoga Day, which is now celebrated across the world, has become a movement. Promotion of Ayurveda, and of national milestones such as the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the ongoing Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav – events are planned and executed on a global scale.

The MEA has also focused on supporting Indian workers going abroad. Pre-Departure Orientation Training helps migrant workers to know about the culture, language and regulations of the destination country to ensure their safety and security and informs them about the resources set up by the MEA to help them.