Chennai, Sep 3 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi said on Tuesday that India is playing a crucial role in the new world order that has been emerging.

R.N. Ravi said this while speaking at the inaugural session of the one-day National Hindi Seminar titled 'India on the Global Stage' jointly organised by Tamil Nadu Hindi Sahitya Academy and D.G. Vaishnav College here.

The Tamil Nadu Governor in his address said that the post 'World War-II based world order' which depended on military power and material strength, is crumbling and a 'new world order' is emerging.

R.N. Ravi in his address said: "The inner capacity of our country has been compromised for a long time due to subjugation and colonisation. Unfortunately, the core strength of India was ignored for nearly six and half decades after Independence. When 'garibi hatao' (remove poverty) became a political slogan, more and more people became poorer."

The Tamil Nadu Governor said that there was no time to lose for the country, adding that till a decade ago, the world had not taken India seriously .

He said that everyone was advising India as to "how we should manage our affairs".

"However, the world looks at our country with the expectation of leadership, as India is one of the fastest-growing economies and the engine of growth for the world. In the last 10 years, crores of people in our country were taken out of poverty," R.N. Ravi said.

The Tamil Nadu Governor also highlighted the progress made by India in the field of science and technology.

He said that India was playing a leadership role in combating climate change, and inclusive decision-making with the induction of the African Union as a full member of the G-20, when India hosted the summit under its presidency, last year.

R.N. Ravi said that Tamil was one of the oldest, most powerful and beautiful languages in the world, adding that Tamil should be taken to the rest of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was making efforts to spread the richness of Tamil language and literature.

He said that the government of India established a Chair for poet Subramania Bharati at Banaras Hindu University. The Tamil Nadu governor added that steps were underway to establish a Tamil Chair at Guwahati University.

He also awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards to language scholars Nirmala Bhasin, V.P. Goswami, M. Govind Rajan, Alamelu Krishnan and Ramani Bharadwaj.