Addressing a community event in The Hague during his visit to the Netherlands in the second leg of his five-nation tour, PM Modi said that whenever India succeeds, the world benefits.

“Whenever India succeeds, the entire humanity benefits from it. But today, humanity is also facing many major challenges. We are witnessing how the world is struggling with new challenges one after another,” PM Modi said.

In light of ongoing conflicts, particularly in the oil-rich West Asian region after the US and Israel's attacks on Iran, Modi described the present decade as a period of compounding catastrophe.

“First came the coronavirus pandemic, then wars began to erupt, and now the world is facing an energy crisis. This decade is increasingly turning into a decade of disasters for the world. We can all see that if these conditions are not changed swiftly, the achievements of many past decades could be undone. A very large section of the world’s population could once again be pushed into the quagmire of poverty,” he said.

“In such global circumstances, the world today is speaking about resilient supply chains. And in this context, India and the Netherlands are working together to build a trusted, transparent, and future-ready supply chain,” he said.

Austerity calls and fuel price hike due to ongoing challenges

Days before his European tour, speaking in Hyderabad, PM Modi called on Indians to adopt voluntary austerity measures, urging them to work from home wherever possible, limit overseas travel, and reduce purchases of gold.

He described fuel conservation and saving foreign exchange as an act of “patriotism”, encouraging greater use of public transport, carpooling, and lower fertiliser consumption.

Recalling the Covid pandemic times, he underscored that remote work had become normal during that period, and the government now views such behavioural changes as short-term demand management tools.