External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday mentioned as we speak India is rather more dominant regionally and now, no person sees India and Pakistan on equal phrases. “The nation has clearly come out within the area as the first energy,” information company ANI quoted Jaishankar as saying. He hailed India’s rise to the fifth-largest economy.

Addressing the scholars of Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, the exterior affairs minister mentioned, “When I used to be of your age, there was an period when the world used to see India and Pakistan on equal phrases. Today, no person does that, not even Pakistan. We have clearly come out within the area as the first energy.”

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Hailing India as a number one energy in Information know-how human assets, he praised the Indian diaspora and acknowledged their “increasingly important role in the global world” in addition to their contribution to “the rise of India”. “10-15 years ago, India used to be at the world’s back office in terms of IT. Today, Indians are increasingly seen as innovators. The world sees the talent and skill in us and the world is trying to integrate it into their businesses,” he mentioned.

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“When the world looks at the rise of India, for them the contribution and successes of the diaspora are part of the story of the rise of India. So we too have a responsibility, if so many Indians live abroad it’s our duty to look after it,” ANI reported quoting him.

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At the university, Jaishankar earlier inspected the newly inaugurated Kashi Tamil Sangamam Exhibition. The exhibition was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November as a month-long celebration in a bid to “rediscover, reaffirm and celebrate the age-old links between Tamil Nadu and Kashi – two of the country’s most important and ancient seats of learning”. The exhibition is a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Education together with ministries of Culture, Textiles, Railways, Tourism, Food Processing, I&B, and many others, and the federal government of UP.

(With ANI and bureau inputs)