India: Drivers of Change!

 

The huge domestic market India!

Global investors invited to invest in India 

The Union Commerce and Industry, Railways, and Food & public distribution Minister Shri Piyush Goyal has invited the global investors to invest in India, taking benefit of the huge domestic market and conductive business environment in the country. In his Keynote Address at Conference 'India: Drivers of Change' organized by the Bank of America, he said that the country offers fair value for their investments. 

Shri Goyal said that India is being seen as a trusted partner in the global value chains. He said that India has a transparent system and open democracy. India is targeting to achieve rightful place in the comity of nations. He said that the Government is working as a team, breaking departmental silos. Shri Goyal said that there are large business opportunities in the country. Bold decisions are being taken to empower the businesses to think big and bold, and explore unchartered territories and businesses, he added. 

Talking about today’s cabinet decisions, Shri Goyal said that approval has been given to introduce the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme in the 10 key sectors for Enhancing India’s Manufacturing Capabilities and Enhancing Exports – Atmanirbhar Bharat. He said that the PLIs announced earlier for the telecom, APIs and medical devices have got encouraging response. 

The incentives will help India in becoming strong, self-sufficient, self-reliant, and meeting our domestic needs as well as for exporting. The Minister said that the government will do the hand-holding for these sectors over the next 5 years. He also mentioned about other initiatives for various other sectors like cluster development and logistics support. On the Viability gap funding scheme for the social sectors, he said that it will bring in private investment in the social sectors like drinking water, health and education, and help in meeting the needs of the people. 

Shri Goyal said that the Indian economy is coming out of the Covid setback, and several datasets indicate that the country is returning back to the business. The PMI index is at a high level, not seen for a long time. Similarly, the Services index has also gone up. The GST collections in October were 10% more than the corresponding period of last year. 

Similarly, Indian exports were up by 5% in September. After a small dip in October, the exports in the first week of November have also shown 22% growth. He said that the imports are also picking up, showing that economic activity is normalizing. The Minister said that the railway freight in last two months has been 15% more than the corresponding period of the last year. The recent results of the Indian companies for the last quarter also show that things are returning back to normalcy. 

The Minister said that the Start-up culture in the country has really gained pace, giving impetus to the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, and now people of India are aspiring to become job-creators rather than job-seekers. Shri Goyal emphasised on 4 Cs-Courage, Confidence, competence, and compassion. He said that India is set to become $5 tn economy by 2025, and set the bar to $10 tn in next 7 to 8 years. 

On the issue of the Atamnirbharbharat campaign, he said that this is meant to not only make India self-reliant, but also engage with the world from a position of strength. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, we have liberalized several sectors including defence, Agriculture, coal, Mining, space technology. More private investment is welcome in these sectors. He said that the government should be out of consumer-oriented businesses and non-core sectors.