NEW DELHI: A fortnight before the Budget, PM Narendra Modi made a bold pitch for foreign investment, assuring all support to investors, saying India has fast-pedalled on reforms and infrastructure and the financial mood is positive even as it is facing another wave.
“The spirit of entrepreneurship in the country can provide new energy to every global partner. This is the best time to invest in India,” he said at the World Economic Forum’s annual meet, which is being held virtually.
He listed a host of steps and reform initiatives, ranging from a cut in corporate tax rates, to sorting out retrospective tax, the PLI scheme and easing of rules, in what was seen as an indication that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present an investor-friendly budget on February 1.
The government is looking for a major boost to investment in the coming months to ensure that the growth process stays its course and more jobs are created in the country.
“There was a time when India was recognised for ‘Licence Raj’, the government had control over most things. We are trying to remove these challenges. We are trying to promote ‘ease of doing’ business and reduce government intervention,” he said, while pointing to developing technologies and platforms such as CoWin to deal with the pandemic, the pharma industry’s contribution and sought to position India as a “trusted partner” for global supply chains.
He suggested that the proposed free trade agreements with the UK, European Union, UAE and Australia would help and push investment in semiconductors and other businesses. He also listed out the large asset monetisation and infrastructure investment plans lined up by the government.
“Today, India is making policies for the present and the next 25 years, it is decisive. During this period, India has set itself a goal of high growth and saturation of welfare and wellness. This era of growth will also be green, clean, sustainable and reliable,” Modi said.
While mentioning that India was way ahead of its target on the Paris goals, PM said: “While making large commitments on global goals and the tradition of sticking to them, we have set ourselves a target of net zero. With 17% global population, India may be making only 5% contributions to global carbon emissions, but it is 100% committed to dealing with the global climate challenge.” Calling for a reform of the multilateral agencies, he underlined the need for cooperation between countries and global bodies while pointing to cryptocurrencies as one possible area of coordinated action.
Even as the government seeks to strike a balance between regulating or banning private digital currencies, Modi said that given the link with technology, it was not possible for one country to deal with it.