Published 07:38 IST, November 15th 2018
PM Modi in Singapore: From informal breakfast to East Asia Summit Plenary, here's PM Modi's full schedule of day two in Singapore
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a two-day visit to Singapore to attend the East Asia Summit, an influential bloc which delves into political, security and trade-related issues in the Asia-Pacific region.
Update at 8:36 am: PM Narendra Modi participated at ASEAN-India Breakfast Summit in Singapore. Reaffirmed cooperation in the maritime domain and centrality of trade and investment towards the prosperity of Indo-Pacific.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a two-day visit to Singapore to attend the East Asia Summit, an influential bloc which delves into political, security and trade-related issues in the Asia-Pacific region. Here's is the full schedule of PM Modi's visit to Singapore on November 15, 2018.
- 06:00 am: ASEAN-India Informal Breakfast Summit
- 07:05 am: Awards to the winning teams of India-Singapore Hackathon 2018. (PM Modi will present awards to winners of the first 'India-Singapore Hackathon 2018' which aims to harness and showcase innovation potential of the youth from the two countries. Singapore Education Minister Ong Ye Kung will be present at the award ceremony)
- 10:00 am: East Asia Summit Lunch (Retreat)
- 11:30 am: 13th East Asia Summit Plenary
- 2:30 pm: Emplane for Delhi
Earlier on Wednesday, innumerable stories of India's financial inclusion enthralled Singapore as Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the keynote address at the Singapore Fintech Festival, also launching the API Exchange (or Apix platform).
Calling the speech a tribute to Indian youth who have their eyes set firmly on the future, the Prime Minister praised Singapore as a global hub of finance which was taking a leap into the digital future. He spoke about how it was in Singapore that he had launched a remittance app using India's UPI interface.
PM Modi spoke to the gathered audience about how "History has shown that Finance is often the first to embrace new technologies", listing how "From desktop to the cloud, from the Internet to social media, from IT services to Internet of Things, we've come a long way in a short time."
Speaking about India, he said, "We have to believe that development and empowerment can spread at the same pace as Facebook and Twitter have spread. That is turning into a reality. In India, it has transformed government and services". He harkened back to the time his government had come into the office, and the difficult task it had set before itself:
"My government came to office in 2014 with a mission of inclusive development that would touch the lives of every village. It needed a sound message of financial inclusion for all. It wasn't easy given India's time", PM Modi said.
Starting to list out the various financial inclusions since he began with the headline statistic:
"Less than 50% Indians had bank accounts in 2015. Now, it is nearly universal. More than a billion bank accounts and cell phones give India the biggest public infrastructure in the world".
Extrapolating this to the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) Yojana and the PM's flagship insurance scheme, PM Modi extolled the efficacy of direct benefit transfer, saying,
"Almost $50 billion has been transferred to the common man directly. We've saved about $12 billion in prevented leakages. Now, millions who live in the age of uncertainty have access to security of pension in old age".
Updated 11:54 IST, November 15th 2018