Mumbai
Union minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal on Saturday in Mumbai said services trade between India and US will play a very important role in ever growing relations. At the second Indo-US Services Summit, Goyal asserted that fintech, agritech, accountancy, law, healthcare, entertainment, tourism and cyber security are the new areas of opportunities to cooperate with mutual benefits.
“India & US are two natural partners and our relationship has stood the test of times due to our shared values of equality, liberty and democracy” he said.
Goyal recalled the Y2K challenge two decades back and how the Indian talent helped the US deal with it and how the world started noticing India’s skills, capabilities and commitment like never before. “It changed the perception of India,” he remarked.
The Minister said India is now moving beyond a ‘low-cost service provider’ to a ‘high value add partner’ and added that the back offices in India are evolving into brain offices. Giving examples of the 57 StartUp Unicorns, Goyal said the entrepreneurial spirit of young Indians will place the country in the forefront.
According to Goyal, the total Services Exports from India to the world was $17 bn in 2001-02 and has now leapfrogged to $205 bn in 2020-21, registering a twelve-fold increase. Goyal applauded the good work by service industry stakeholders and said that India has met all its service commitments that it had across the world without failure throughout the last 15-16 months. “Our services exports are back to 97% of the previous year,” he said.
“When we talk of India-US partnership, we each have areas of strengths where we excel. The US is a hub of innovation, technology, research & quality education. India has skilled and intelligent manpower at competitive cost. Uniting our strengths will create an unbeatable combination,” said Goyal.
