India model: UNDP chief hails India’s growth with inclusion; digital, climate push seen as global blueprint
Calling India’s growth story a mix of technology-driven delivery, participatory governance and resilient climate action, Xu said the country offers “a blueprint for balancing growth with sustainability”.In an interview to PTI during his three-day visit to India, Xu described India’s development strategy as one that ensures “no one is left behind”, even as the world faces a slowdown in human development.
He noted that the latest Human Development Index shows global progress has slipped to a 35-year low, with stagnation over the past two years.Xu said India’s investments in people –particularly vulnerable groups –have been central to its progress.
Flagship programmes such as MGNREGA and Ayushman Bharat, he said, combine livelihood support with social protection in a way that many countries are studying.He pointed to India’s digital stack, including the JAM trinity and UPI, as a global benchmark for direct, transparent benefit delivery.
“The UPI digital payments are as simple as sending a text message,” he said, adding that CoWIN proved the strength of India’s public digital infrastructure by tracking more than two billion vaccinations.Xu also highlighted India’s new U-WIN platform for immunisation monitoring, developed with UNDP support, calling it a “people-centric” tool designed to improve national vaccine coverage.Climate-smart developmentThe UNDP chief said India’s climate priorities — from adaptation to renewable energy — now shape “development pathways that are both economically sound and climate-responsible”.
He pointed to India’s push for green jobs and climate-resilient livelihoods, saying these align economic growth with environmental stability and the Sustainable Development Goals.As developing nations face the need for USD 2.4 trillion annually by 2030 for climate action, Xu said finance systems must be “simpler, faster and more predictable”.
Adaptation finance, he added, cannot remain an afterthought: “Every dollar invested in adaptation yields up to ten dollars in returns.”With India aiming to emerge as a developed nation by 2047, Xu said the country’s approach is increasingly shaping the global South’s policy thinking.
“India is helping translate local success stories into global lessons,” he said, citing expanding South-South cooperation.He stressed that UNDP is working with 86 countries on integrated national financing frameworks to mobilise resources for SDG-linked sectors, including climate action.
Strengthening regulatory predictability, digital capacity and institutional readiness, Xu said, will define the next phase of India–UNDP cooperation.“India’s story is not only about growth,” he added.
“It is about using technology, evidence and participatory governance to ensure that development objectives are achieved and no one is left behind.”
