Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said India must be prepared to tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities emerging from a changing global order and assured businesses of the government's ease of doing business reforms.
"As we lay the foundation for a developed India, we must stay committed to long-term goals, without losing sight of present realities. The global order is changing. That poses challenges but also opportunities. We must be prepared to tackle the former while seizing the latter," she said while delivering a keynote address at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Adding that reforms are already underway, she said the Indian government's focus is now on reducing regulatory frictions, digitising approvals, and integrating MSMEs into global value chains.
"Despite the pandemic shock and a banking crisis, India's progress over the past decade, anchored in strong macroeconomic fundamentals and steady reforms, gives us confidence and direction for the road ahead," she said.
At another address yesterday, FM Sitharaman said India and the US are aiming to positively conclude the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement by September-October this year.
The Finance Minister also met with senior Indian-origin executives of various technology companies.
During a meeting with Thomas Kurian, chief executive officer at Google Cloud, Sitharaman urged Google to explore local linkages in India for territorial collaboration and build tech for India and the world as part of the Make In India initiative.
Kurian acknowledged India's AI Mission and the trajectory India is taking and called for connecting India to the world via land and sea cables. He also outlined details about the upcoming investment strategy that the group is working on for India.
The Finance Minister also met executives of venture capital firm a16z, cloud computing company VMware, DataRobot and Turing.
Debanjan Saha, CEO of DataRobot, referred to India's potential to become an AI superpower and also expressed interest in participating in the AI Centre of Excellence, for which the Union Budget 2025-26 recently allocated Rs 500 crore.
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