Ahead of his India visit next month to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations, US President Barack Obama has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his moves to shake up the country’s “bureaucratic inertia”.
Obama, who had called Modi “a man of action” during a visit to Myanmar last month, made another brief but pointed reference to the Indian Prime Minister’s stewardship during an interaction with business leaders in Washington on Wednesday.
“Modi has impressed me so far with his willingness to shake up the bureaucratic inertia inside of India,” Obama told Business Roundtable executives. He, however, added: “But that is a long-term project and we’ll have to see how successful he is.”
Obama's comments came even as he surveyed the economic situation and potential in some of the major world economies, with much of his focus being on America's own substantial rebound after the 2007-08 financial meltdown and recession.
Six years ago, American businesses were shedding 8,00,000 jobs a month, Obama said, noting that it has been a big turnaround since then. Over 10 million new jobs have been created. "We just saw the best six-month period of economic growth in over a decade. For the first time in six years, the unemployment rate is under 6 per cent," he said.
"All told, the United States of America, over the last six years, has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and the rest of the advanced world combined. And that's a record for us to build on,” he said.