Opportunities Galore For Investors In India: Nirmala Sitharaman
Opportunities galore are there in India for all investors and industry stakeholders with the current reset in the global supply chain and clear headed and committed leadership in the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.
Ms Sitharaman arrived in New York late on Friday after her visit to Washington DC where she participated in the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"With the current reset in the global supply chain and clear headed and committed leadership in India, I see opportunities galore in India for all investors and industry stakeholders,” Ms Sitharaman said during her address to global business leaders and investors at a roundtable organised here by industry chamber FICCI and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum here on Saturday.
Startups in India have grown tremendously and many are now raising money through capital markets. This year itself, more than 16 of them will qualify as unicorns, she said.
India has fully leveraged the potential of digitisation even during the most challenging times, the finance minister said.
The role of technology in the financial sector is enabling pushing the frontier of financial inclusion and fintechs are playing a key role in this area, she said at the roundtable, the Finance Ministry tweeted.
Ms Sitharaman also met Mastercard Executive Chairman Ajay Banga and Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach, FedEx Corporation President and Chief Operating Officer Raj Subramaniam, Citi CEO Jane Fraser and IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna.
Following his meeting with Ms Sitharaman, Mr Banga said India is on a “great pathway and trajectory” with its continuing reforms and he can see great momentum.
"I am particularly impressed by the production linked incentives that have been put into place,” he said, adding that they can make a big difference to the way that labour intensive industries in India can develop.
“I am very hopeful that it's not just one reform but the series of reforms that are continuing can keep guiding India on the trajectory. I believe that there is a lot of opportunity for India to participate in supply chains and this can be very helpful over the next period of years to bring good jobs into India,” Mr Banga said, asserting that he is “constructively optimistic” about what India is doing.