Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members would be among the major players in finding a solution to the food and energy crises engulfing the world right now, an Indian Finance Ministry official stated on Wednesday.
Speaking during a meeting of the SCO Interbank Consortium, Vivek Joshi, Union Secretary at the Ministry's Department of Financial Services, said that the world is currently experiencing a "looming economic recession" and India is trying to mitigate food and energy security challenges.
"Today, when the world is facing challenges of a looming economic recession, closer cooperation among SCO member states will play a pivotal role in combating global challenges, such as food and energy security concerns," he said.
The official said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched LIFE (Lifestyle for Environment) to combat these challenges. LIFE aims to turn the easily disposable economy into a circular economy wherein the "destructive consumption" of resources would be replaced by meaningful use.
As part of the circular economy, India would promote the model of 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle' and Mission LIFE would focus on conserving nature as prescribed by conservationists.
The official's comments came hours after India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that New Delhi would work with other nations on the issue of food and energy security during his ongoing nine-day trip to Latin American and Caribbean countries.
"Energy and food security are perhaps the two most immediate global challenges that the South faces. But again there are the longer-term trends, the priorities which will go beyond food and energy security including those of development, of growth, of trade, of investment, of employment, of poverty deduction," Jaishankar said while addressing an India-Central American Integration System ministerial meeting on Tuesday.
The minister asserted that India would continue to contribute to mitigate the challenge.
"I can assure you that India will be doing more, India is doing more and we would like to see that translated particularly into our particular relationships," he added.
"I can assure you that India will be doing more, India is doing more and we would like to see that translated particularly into our particular relationships," he added.