Queen Máxima in India: May 28-30

As special advocate of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Inclusive Finance for Development, Queen Máxima paid a three-day visit to India from Monday May 28 to Wednesday May 30.

Queen Máxima spent the first day of the visit, Monday May 28, in New Delhi where she had several business meetings. The first meeting was at the headquarter of NITI Aayog, National Institution for Transforming India, a policy think tank of the Government of India established in 2015 to provide strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India. The Queen met with Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog and Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog.

Then Queen Máxima paid a visit to the Indian Software Products Industry Round Table (iSPIRIT), a think tank for the Indian software products industry. The Queen had also a meeting with Yuri Afanasiev, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in India.

After ensuring banking access to 300+ mn Indians, the next priority is ensuring their participation in upscale value chain. #NITIAayog will nominate a dedicated officer to coordinate with UNSGSA & private players: VC @RajivKumar1, on meeting with Queen Maxima @UNSGSA pic.twitter.com/jIgaQYUSBz

— NITI Aayog (@NITIAayog) May 28, 2018

Pleasure meeting & interacting with Queen Maxima of Netherlands during her visit to #NITIAayog . Discussion focussed on financial inclusion strategies for women, Jam trinity, livelihoods & communities. @koninklijkhuis @UNSGSA pic.twitter.com/dGDQNUA34X

— Amitabh Kant (@amitabhk87) May 28, 2018

In the afternoon Queen Máxima was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the presidential palace, Panchavati. A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office informed that “Prime Minister Modi and Queen Máxima discussed the various initiatives taken in the last few years by the government of India for enhancing financial inclusion in India”; and also that “Queen Máxima appreciated India’s efforts in this direction, through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) scheme and provision of concessional Lines of Credit for development projects abroad, based on the host government’s requirements and priorities”.

PM @narendramodi meeting with Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in New Delhi. pic.twitter.com/qaAletc8R6

— PIB India (@PIB_India) May 28, 2018

On Tuesday May 29, Queen Máxima moved to Meerut, a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, to pay a field visit to the Cricket Factory. The factory produces cricket bats, balls and gloves thanks to the financial support of Aye Finance, a finance company that that provides business loans to the small and micro enterprises across India.

Back in New Delhi, Queen Máxima met with the interim Minister of Finance, Piyush Goyal and Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs. In the evening the Queen moved to Mumbai.

https://twitter.com/UNinIndia/status/1001462554625953792

Microentrepreneurs making cricket equipment describe how customer-centric fin. services work for them. #India #financialinclusion https://t.co/ylGzrxKvkv pic.twitter.com/NUfCpbMURk

— UNSGSA (@UNSGSA) May 29, 2018

Queen Maxima began her third and last day in India, Wednesday May 30, with a meeting with the leaders of Indian companies involved with the CEO Partnership for Financial Inclusion. This group consists of ten heads of international companies that were reunited for the first time last January on invitation of the Queen.

Afterwards the Queen had a meeting with Urjit Patel, Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In the afternoon, at the Andheri rail station in the suburb of Mumbai, Queen Máxima met with representatives of the dabbawalas.

The dabbawalas are lunch deliverymen who travel by bicycle and train throughout Mumbai to deliver around 200,000 home-cooked meals everyday. Since last February, the Mumbai Dabbawala Association signed an agreement with the digital bank PayTM that allows around 5000 dabbawalas to have a digital bank account so that customers can pay using a QR code instead of cash.

https://twitter.com/Royal_Circular/status/1001780213502631936

H. M Queen Máxima who is in India as the @UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Inclusion @UNSGSA meets #Mumbai's famous #dabbawalas.

The dabbawalas join the ranks of the financially included with a mobile financial tool @Paytm pic.twitter.com/VUsizcjOrD

— United Nations India (@UNinIndia) May 30, 2018

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