Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday described India as a ‘bright spot’ in a gloomy global economic situation, hard-selling the ‘ease of business’ reforms his government had undertaken and raising hopes that Parliament would pass the much-delayed Goods and Services Tax early next year as he wooed investments from a sceptical German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Speaking at Nasscom’s Digitizing Tomorrow Together conference in Bengaluru, Mr. Modi said, "India is on the threshold of a digital revolution, which means additional avenues for investment in modern technology and human resources”, he said. “We are moving forward with a very open, global mindset, committed to Make in India."
He said an array of opportunities lay before German companies, from "building 50 million houses to setting up 100 smart cities, modernisation of the railway network and stations to setting up of new railway corridors, generation of 175 GW of renewable energy to the construction of transmission and distribution networks, national highways, bridges and Metro rail networks," he said. Such potential, he declared, cannot be found in any other country, adding, "no other place on earth can offer potential for consumption on such a massive scale."
Chancellor Merkel was optimistic that Indo-German trade, hovering at a lowly 16 billion euros last year, would rise rapidly, but struck a note of caution that investments into India would depend on the “framework conditions made available to business.” Indian investment into Germany was "warmly welcome," she added.
