News Desk: On July 22, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi delivered the keynote address at the India Ideas Summit. The Summit was hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC). The theme for this year’s Summit was ‘Building a Better Future’.
The Prime Minister congratulated USIBC on its 45th anniversary. He also thanked the USIBC leadership for their commitment to advancing India-US economic partnership.
Global economic resilience through stronger domestic economic capacities
PM Modi talked about the need to place the poor and the vulnerable at the core of the growth agenda. He underlined that ‘Ease of Living’ is as important as ‘Ease of Business’. He said that the pandemic has reminded us of the importance of resilience of the global economy against external shocks, which can be achieved by stronger domestic economic capacities. He also emphasized that India is contributing towards a prosperous and resilient world through the clarion call of an ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’.
India offers a perfect combination of openness, opportunities, and options
Prime Minister said that there is global optimism towards India because it offers a perfect combination of openness, opportunities, and options. He noted that in the last six years, efforts have been undertaken to make our economy more open and reform-oriented
Citing a recent report, Prime Minister said that there are more rural internet users than urban internet users. Hailing India as a land of opportunities, he said there are about half a billion active internet users in the country now, while there are over half a billion more people who are being connected. He also mentioned opportunities in the frontier technologies of 5G, Big Data analytics, and Quantum Computing.
Extensive opportunities to invest across sectors
Narendra Modi underlined that there are extensive opportunities to invest in a variety of sectors in India. He talked about the historic reforms recently undertaken in the agriculture sector and said that there are opportunities to invest in areas including agriculture inputs and machinery, agriculture supply chain, food processing sector, fisheries, and organic produce. Noting that the healthcare sector in India is growing faster than 22% every year and the progress of Indian companies in the production of medical-technology, telemedicine, and diagnostics, he said that now is the best time to expand investment in the Indian healthcare sector.
He listed several other sectors that offer tremendous opportunities to invest, viz. the energy sector; infrastructure creation including building houses, roads, highways, and ports; civil aviation, wherein top private Indian airlines plan to include over a thousand new aircraft over the coming decade.
Rising investments in India
PM Modi talked about India’s rise in Ease of Doing Business rankings of the World Bank. He underlined that each year, India is reaching record highs in FDI, adding that FDI inflows in India in 2019-20 were 74 billion dollars, which is an increase of 20% over the previous year. He highlighted that even during the pandemic, India has attracted foreign investment of more than 20 billion dollars between April and July this year.
Best time to invest in India
Narendra Modi also stated that India has what is needed to power the global economic recovery. He noted that India’s rise means a rise in trade opportunities with a nation that can be trusted. Calling the USA and India as natural partners, he said this partnership can play an important role in helping the world bounce back faster after the pandemic. Reaching out to the American investors, PM Modi said that there has never been a better time to invest in India.