Promises of removing bottlenecks for ease of doing business in India
New York : Making the biggest pitch to woo US investments, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday courted top financial sector CEOs, outlining the opportunities in various sectors and promising to address their concerns while removing bottlenecks for ease of doing business. Kicking off his second visit to the US in one year with a meeting with eight of the top 10 financial entities in the US, including JP Morgan and Blackstone, Modi outlined efforts made during the last 15 months to increase investment in key areas like infrastructure.
“Roundtable with Financial Sector CEOs was a fruitful exchange of views on economic issues. Urged CEOs to invest in India in various sectors,” he tweeted.
“Highlighted steps taken by Govt. to improve business environment in India & how this translated into increased FDI & investor confidence,” Modi added. In another tweet, he said the CEOs were “very interested in India’s start-up sector. They appreciated steps taken by Govt. to make business easier.” A PMO statement said, Modi outlined the
government’s reform agenda as well as improving economic climate and said “any bottlenecks which should not be there, will not be there.”
He spoke of the ease of doing business rankings among states, that had been done by the World Bank, while noting that there was now a healthy competition among states in this area. Highlighting liberalization of the FDI regime in sectors such as insurance, railways and defence, Modi also mentioned some specific sectors where there was great scope for innovative solutions in India, including insurance products for the agriculture sector and the health sector.
He also mentioned defence manufacturing, electronic goods manufacturing, renewable energy equipment, railways and metros, Clean India and Digital India as sectors where immense potential existed for investment. CEOs shared their concerns as well as experiences of doing business in India, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said.
The Prime Minister ‘took on board’ suggestions made by the executives and assured them that “work is already underway” to resolve concerns of doing business and investing in India.
He outlined the sheer scale of development that will happen in India and the ‘tremendous opportunities’ it offers to foreign institutional investors and for FDI, Swarup said.
“The Prime Minister spoke very candidly. He outlined his vision for India. He said any bottlenecks which should not be there will not be there,” the MEA spokesman said. Swarup said some of the concerns raised by investors are that there is still some bureaucracy left, deregulation has not been as fast as they had expected.
On the REIT side they had some concerns about taxation policies, bankruptcy laws and deregulation and wanted faster pace of infrastructure development. He added that these were not new issues and the Prime Minister is fully aware of them. Modi asked the CEOs to give him a detailed note on all the points and concerns raised by them to examine in detail and respond.
Making a strong pitch for increased investment in various sectors in India, the Prime Minister outlined his vision for ‘Start-Up India, Stand-Up India’, the PMO statement said. He said that along with the public sector and private sector, he was laying emphasis to individual start-ups and entrepreneurs – whom he referred to as the ‘personal sector’. He said start-ups and innovation had been at the heart of the IT revolution. The Prime Minister expressed satisfaction that all the CEOs at the roundtable had not only spoken about India’s possibilities, but also voiced their confidence in them, the statement said, adding Modi noted that they had articulated their concerns clearly.
