New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India has rediscovered its inherent strength over the past 12 years, leading to growing self-confidence and prompting developed nations to pursue trade agreements with the country.

Addressing the News18 Rising Bharat Summit, Modi said India’s renewed confidence and institutional strengthening have transformed its global standing.

“No country would have done trade deals with us had we not discovered our inherent strength and strengthened our institutions. Because of this, the developed countries have come forward to sign trade deals,” he said.

The Prime Minister remarked that even after Independence, certain sections ensured that a colonial mindset persisted for their own benefit. He said centuries of slavery had instilled a sense of inferiority in the country’s collective psyche and that imported ideologies had propagated the notion that Indians were uneducated and subservient.

“Capability does not come suddenly to any country; it is built over generations and honed by knowledge, tradition, hard work and experience,” Modi said.

Drawing a contrast with the period before 2014, he referred to a time when India was counted among the “Fragile Five” economies and faced policy paralysis.

“If the country was still mired in the despair of the pre-2014 era, counted among the ‘Fragile Five’, and gripped by policy paralysis, who would strike a trade deal with us?” he asked.

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Modi said that over the past 11 years, a fresh wave of energy has flowed into the nation’s consciousness and that India is now striving to reclaim its lost potential on the global stage.