New Delhi | Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India has discovered its inherent strength in the last 12 years and, following this rising self-confidence, developed nations are coming forward to sign trade deals with the country.

Addressing the News18 Rising Bharat Summit, Modi said even after Independence, some people ensured that the colonial mindset remained for their own benefits.

"No country would have done trade deals with us had we not discovered our inherent strength and strengthened our institutions. Because of this, the developed countries have come forward to sign trade deals (with India)," he said.

The prime minister also said that capability does not come suddenly to any country; it is built over generations, and honed by knowledge, tradition, hard work and experience.

Over the long span of history, centuries of slavery had filled the feeling of the country's capability with inferiority, and the ideology imported from other countries had deeply ingrained in society the notion that Indians are uneducated and subservient, Modi said.

"If the country was still mired in the despair of the pre-2014 era, counted among the ‘Fragile Five’, and gripped by policy paralysis, who would strike a trade deal with us?

“Over the past 11 years, a new surge of energy has flowed into the nation's consciousness. India is now striving to reclaim its lost potential," Modi said.