We look at climate, and it is changing at a frightening pace. You used to have to, if you wanted to sort of think of, you know, what was the hottest year on record or what was the hottest month on record, you had to go and Google and, you know, do some research. Now you don't have to, it was just last month, it was just last year, it's, you know, we're breaking this record, and it's not a record you want to be breaking, each, practically, you know, each and every month, it feels like, and, you know, one can imagine the frightening scenario when, I mean, as I’m a Diliwala, you know, how hot it can get now, you imagine our children looking back to those good old days in 2024 when it was so, you know, so cool, because that's the trend of things.

There are many other concerns, such as the triple planetary crisis such as plastics. Microplastics are absolutely everywhere in our world now - from the deepest trench in the deepest sea, to the human womb, and now in the human brain, so microplastics are absolutely everywhere. So that's the reality we live in, but, you know, the good news is there's much reason to be optimistic as well, and I want to speak about two streams of optimism that are very much relevant to this gathering in this place.

The first stream is you – business. I think, Seema, you were talking about Sustainability Conscious world, and it wasn't too long ago that speaking about sustainability was a little bit of a niche, I mean, you had to really be cutting edge or really interested in the space to be thinking about that, certainly in the business environment, and now it's very much mainstream, the consciousness is there, we haven't translated enough of that consciousness into action, but at least the consciousness is there, and that's an important development. So, from micro to small to medium and global multinationals, businesses are simply the most powerful engine to deliver on the 2030 agenda and beyond, and that's very clear now. We understand very clearly that we have a role to play in terms of complementing and helping to unlock potential there, but it's definitely no longer about large development budgets.

Even governments as large and capacitated as India's, do not have the resources to deliver what we need to deliver, but business does, and of course it's a very large tent, but private sector does have the muscle and the capacity to do that through creating jobs, through building 21st century skills, spurring innovation, providing the infrastructure, often together in partnership with the public sector, with Government providing affordable goods and services, through a sustainable business model, process and value chain. The financing gap that we look at, we estimate now something like USD 4 trillion a year to fund the sustainable development goals. That sounds huge, and it is, but when you look at capital markets, for example, I see different estimates, but let's just say USD 120 trillion in capital markets.

So, the money is there, it's about channelling and incentives, incentivizing the spending of the capital that we have in the right way, and this could, estimates show, additionally unleash trillions of dollars in business opportunities by focusing on the sustainable development goals through opportunities in food security, in sustainable cities, smart cities, renewable energy, health systems, and such. So that's one.

The second stream for optimism is India, right here and right now. With one-sixth of humanity, and I’d like to say the world’s greatest youth generation; greatest in the sense of more young minds to tap for solutions than any country has ever had before. We see the young generation here in India coming up with incredible energy and ideas and innovations to help us unleash, sorry, unlock some of these wicked challenges that we face. We see a fast-growing economy, the fifth largest economy now in the world, and maybe the third by 2030. We see a very dynamic private sector, industry, innovations sector, world-class digital public infrastructure, and digital public goods as well. This is so important because India is quite literally, as the Secretary General has said in his visits here, India is quite literally the country that can make the sustainable development goals, the global ones, a reality. We estimate something like a quarter, a third in some cases, even half of global targets are here in India, can be achieved here in India. So as India moves forward, the world quite literally will also move forward.

There are a number of truly critical mission mode programs that are delivering results at a scale that moves the global needle. These are Jan Andolans, for example, Jal Jivan Mission bringing water and sanitation to millions and millions of homes. We look at what's happened in terms of financial inclusion, bankability, and financial inclusion with digital public infrastructure. If I'm not mistaken, women with bank accounts and their names going from 25% to over 80% in the matter of just a handful of years (five, six, seven years). This is truly important. The Food Security Act as well is important.

On climate leadership, India has staked a major play, through investments in renewable energy. The Panchamrit targets 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity. We see that it has resulted in a fourfold increase in renewables in less than a decade. Solar has increased 11 times in just the last five years. If I'm not mistaken, India now has the third largest capacity for solar power generation in the world. India also embraced the sustainable development goals as an operational framework to a much greater degree than any country that I've seen. You see this translated; we were just having a conversation before this session about how, for example, NITI Aayog produces the India SDG Index. We, in the United Nations are proud to be a partner in the process, which provides state level and district level data for decision makers and stakeholders to understand where are the gaps; for business and for Industry, this can be incredibly useful. It is being used by Industry and businesses at state levels and beyond in terms of understanding where to invest your resources.

The Government of India's Companies Act has been groundbreaking in terms of really unleashing CSR spending, which has grown 13% and more over the last few years. Social sector spending is standing at approximately almost USD 300 billion in 2023. So, this is really, truly important.

Then in the course of this Summit, we've heard from so many of you about how CSR and ESG is very, very important. It's about really integrating sustainability into your core business model and your core value chains. How can Industry, and how can India be a leader in transitioning to low carbon solutions? With the G20 Sherpa Amitabh Ghant and we had an excellent time partnering with India on the G20 Presidency. He was talking about how India can really leapfrog and really, since so much of India's industrialization, urbanization is still ahead, do that, in an increasingly low carbon pathway on the basis of ESG frameworks on innovation and digital innovation and sustainability and others as well.

I believe Minister Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, when he was heading the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in previous Government, was saying that two-thirds of India's cities are not yet built. This is hard to wrap your head around. We look at Delhi and Mumbai and Kolkata and all the urbanization in India and we understand that two-thirds is still to be added. A new Chicago every year or two, something like that, in terms of the built environment.

So, the opportunities to do that in a smart, sustainable, inclusive way are absolutely enormous and that has absolutely enormous implications for the world. I know Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav, was here yesterday launching the book on climate resilience for India, which also shows the importance of India's leadership in terms of adaptation as well as mitigation and climate justice. It really shines a light on the fact that the high-income world, the developed world, has not held up, lived up to its promises and its obligation to provide financing and technology for the global south, for the developing world, to make that transition to renewable energy-based development and to build resilience that is so necessary for that. So that's where we see India's leadership at the international stage so important.

The G20 Presidency I already mentioned. Other forums India is the voice for Global South. You look at investments in multilateral initiatives like the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), to help countries quickly, rapidly put in that infrastructure they need to save lives and to build prosperity in this unfortunately climate-affected world that's not the future, it's the now. Or the International Solar Alliance India's put forward there to help countries get the investment needed because we all know that renewable energy is now actually economically more profitable than carbon-based. But the challenge is, of course, it's a bit more cost upfront investment. So, you need those financing solutions, and we need reform of international financial architecture.

In India here, the Singh, Summers report that India put forward, aligns very well with what the Secretary General has called for – USD 500 billion dollars a year for the SDGs rescue as well as reforming the multilateral development banks, so that they can unlock trillions of dollars and crowd in many trillions more of private sector investment.

So, I think we are at this crossroads and we at the United Nations recognize that business is absolutely not just a partner, but the hope and the solution. We’ll not get where we need to go without business in the lead actually. And that's why we in the UN in India country team, value so much partnering with you across a full gamut of sectors and initiatives. Just a few examples we've we're working with Elan and LAKME Fashion Week on a circular design challenge, which is a kind of a fun and exciting way to incentivize designers to introduce new designs that are sustainable, circular, socially inclusive as well. We're extending this partnership to the textile sector, and also the manufacturing association and beyond. That's the big heavy hitters. The International Labor Organization is working with Inditex to promote decent work in the cotton supply chain. We have the Green Rising Alliance, which is our YuWaah - the Generation Unlimited India, the youth initiative managed by UNICEF, teaming up with Capgemini with ReNew Power and CIFF to engage 50 million young people here in India to help them acquire the tools needed to be stewards of the planet. UNDP is working with Hindustan Unilever on inclusive circular economic solutions, especially in terms of plastic segregation, recycling and value chain. Omidyar Network, we're partnering with them to do first of its kind research on disability inclusion so that we have real evidence-based approaches to ensuring disability inclusion in cities and elsewhere.

And then finally, of course, and there are many, many, many more examples, but the UN Global Compact remains the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative. Over 12,000 companies worldwide are members across 160 countries. I'm sure many of you here in this room are members of that as well. But we know that we have to reform the call for reform of multilateralism is clear, and India's voice, again, on behalf of the Global South is very clear at front and centre on that.

As a result, the world is gathering, actually starting to gather right now in New York for the General Assembly. This one is dubbed the Summit of the Future, and this is where the world's leaders are coming together to make, hopefully, I believe they are, ambitious commitments to reform. The texts are sort of in draft, they're being negotiated by the various negotiation teams, but we expect within this Compact for the future to have ambitious language and commitments on, for example, reform of the Security Council. I think we're all very aware of the need for that to reform. There is no greater proponent for the reform of Security Council to make it more inclusive and reflective of the world we have today than the Secretary General.

But it is the member states who decide. It is not the staff of the UN, not even the Secretary General. They don't have authority there. It's the member states to do that. New agenda for peace, looking at different ways to ensure peace solutions. I’d like to mention again, India has been the greatest contributor of peacekeeping troops, men and women in uniform since the very, very beginning, playing a hugely important role there.

And I would just mention the Global Digital Compact. Of course, as we know, AI and so many things are evolving faster than we can keep track of. These can be the tools to unleash prosperity for all of us, but they can also be used for bad. So we're focused on this compact. Led by Ambassador Amandeep Singh Gill, who's a good Indian colleague in New York, who's the Secretary General's tech envoy leading this process as well. So, watch that space closely. Let's see what comes out of this Summit of the Future. And the idea is reforms to turbo boost us for these last few years to 2030 and beyond.

Of course, here in India, we're focused not just on 2030, but 2047, Viksit Bharat and other longer term goals. But these are really two stepping stones in the same path as we see it. So, to conclude, again, no more important issue, no more important audience, and no more important time and place than to be talking about business, industry and sustainability here in India. And as I like to say, one of my favorite Hindi phrases, and it actually truly is the case, I grew up with ‘think globally, act locally’, that slogan. But the amazing thing is ‘here in India, you think globally, act locally, the scale is such that you deliver globally’. So, SDGs are possible in the world because they are possible in India.

Thank you very much.