Rie de Janeiro/IBNS: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday addressed the opening session of the G 20 Summit on ‘Social Inclusion and the Fight against Hunger and Poverty’.

Opening his remarks, PM Modi thanked Brazil President Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva, for hosting the Summit and for his hospitality.

He appreciated the Brazilian G20 agenda focused on Sustainable Development Goals, noting that this approach highlighted the concerns of the Global South and took forward the people-centric decisions of the New Delhi G20 Summit.

"The people-centric decisions taken at the G20 Summit in New Delhi have been taken forward during Brazil’s Presidency. We focused on Inclusive development, women-led development, and youth power. And gave wings to the hopes and aspirations of the Global South," he said.

PM Modi underscored that the Indian G20 presidency’s call for "One Earth, One Family, One Future” continued to resonate at the Rio conversations.

Speaking about India’s initiatives to deal with hunger and poverty, the Prime Minister noted that India had pulled 250 million people out of poverty in the last ten years and was distributing free food grains to 800 million people in the country.

Sharing India’s success in tackling food security, PM Modi emphasized that its approach based on ‘Back to Basics and March to Future’ was yielding results. He further elaborated on measures taken by India to foster women-led development.

Prime Minister also highlighted the steps taken by India to strengthen food security in Africa and elsewhere.

In this regard, he welcomed the Brazilian initiative to establish a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, underlining that the Global South was severely impacted by food, fuel and fertilizer crises created by the ongoing conflicts, and therefore, their concerns ought to be given primacy.