Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi while quipping with his minister, François-Philippe Champagne. Carney told Champagne that he only draws 25 people at rallies, whereas PM Modi gets 2,50,000 people at his rallies, even though both are out on weekend campaigning.
This comes after his visit to India from 27 February to 2 March. The four-day official visit, which included time in Mumbai and New Delhi, focused on resetting bilateral ties, trade, and meeting with PM Modi.
“The guy is unique. He has not taken a day off in 25 years, either as the Chief Minister of Gujarat or as the Prime Minister,” ANI quoted Carney as saying.
“Every weekend, like you, François-Philippe, he is out campaigning. He gets 250,000 people at his rallies, you get 25, but that’s okay,” he added.
He elicited laughter from the audience during the seminar.
PM Modi ‘very focused on delivery’: Carney
The Canadian Prime Minister praised PM Modi for his strong work ethic, describing him as “very focused” on delivering benefits to rural households.
“He gave me a hack that anyone would follow up, which is he’s a person who is very focused on delivery… I’ll call it to the rural household,” Carney stated.
He pointed in particular to the transformation of India’s payment systems and made a special mention of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a major accomplishment of the current government.
Speaking about his interaction with PM Modi, Carney said the Indian leader had shared what he described as a “hack” that anyone could adopt, maintaining an intense focus on delivery, especially to rural families.
He noted that the drive behind financial sector reforms, payment system changes, and initiatives such as UPI was to ensure that funds are transferred directly to individuals in real time, reducing leakages in the system. Carney added that these measures have helped bring hundreds of millions of people into the formal economy and emphasized that PM Modi remains deeply committed to that goal.
Meanwhile, on Monday, PM Modi and Carney advanced cooperation on critical minerals and uranium supplies, while also finalizing the terms of reference for negotiations on a proposed free trade agreement. In addition to signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on critical minerals, India’s Department of Atomic Energy and Cameco, one of the world’s largest publicly traded uranium producers, inked a $2.6 billion deal for the supply of 22 million pounds of uranium ore between 2027 and 2035.
