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New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the keynote address at Invest India Conference in Canada through video conference on October 8, 2020, evening. The Prime Minister said India is undisputedly the only country shining in all their investment parameters like having political stability, investment and business friendly policies, transparency in governance, skilled talent pool, and a large market. He said there is an opportunity for everyone including Institutional Investors, manufacturers, supporters of innovation ecosystems, and infrastructure companies.
The Prime Minister said in the post-Covid world, India showed resilience and emerged as a land of solutions to overcome various kinds of problems related to manufacturing, supply chains, etc. He added despite disrupted logistics, money was directly delivered into bank accounts of over 400 million farmers, women, poor and needy people within a matter of days.
PM Modi said while the entire country was in a stringent lockdown, India was providing medicine to around 150 countries and played the role of the pharmacy to the world. He added during March-June this year, agricultural exports rose by 23%. He said before the pandemic, India hardly manufactured PPE kits but today not only does India manufacture millions of PPE kits every month, it exports them too. He committed to ramping up production and helping the entire world in vaccine production for Covid-19, according to a PIB release.
The PM explained how India’s story is growing stronger by listing the initiatives of the Government in creating a business friendly environment. He listed initiatives like liberalising the FDI regime, creating a friendly tax regime for Sovereign Wealth and Pension Funds, bringing significant reforms for developing a robust Bond market, Incentive schemes for Champion sectors. He said schemes in sectors like Pharma, Medical Devices and Electronics Manufacturing are already in operation. He added for ensuring high-level attention and effective hand-holding for investors, a dedicated Empowered Group of Secretaries has been formed.
He said today India is undergoing a rapid change in mindsets as well as markets. It has embarked on a journey of deregulation and decriminalisation of various offences under the Companies Act. He said India has risen from 81 to 48 in the Global Innovation Index rankings and risen from 142 to 63 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings in the last 5 years.
The Prime Minister said due to these improvements, India received around USD 70 Billion from Institutional Investors between January 2019 to July 2020. This is almost equal to that received in four years between 2013 and 2017. He stressed that continuing confidence of the global investor community in India is seen by the fact that FDI into India went up by 20% in 2019 when global FDI inflows fell by 1%.
The Prime Minister said India has already received over USD 20 Billion during the first 6 months of this year from across the globe when Covid-19 has been at peak globally. He said India has undertaken a trinity of reforms in the field of education, labour and agriculture. Together, they impact almost every Indian. He said India has ensured reforms of old laws in the field of labour and agriculture. The Prime Minister said the reforms in the labour laws greatly reduce the number of Labour codes and are both employee and employer friendly and will further increase ease of doing business. He added the reforms in the field of agriculture are far-reaching and will not only give more choice to farmers but will boost exports.
The PM said India-Canada bilateral ties are driven by shared democratic values and many common interests. He said the trade and investment linkages between us are integral to our multifaceted relationship. He highlighted that Canada is home to some of the largest and most experienced infrastructure investors. He said Canadian Pension Funds were the first ones to start investing directly in India. Many of them have already discovered great opportunities in a range of areas like highways, airports, logistics, telecom and real estate.