Mumbai: Saying that his government is aggressively committed to making India a global manufacturing hub, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday assured the business community about further policy corrections to make policies and regulations more transparent, stable and predictable. While addressing business delegates and corporate leaders at the inauguration of the Make In India Week in Mumbai, Mr Modi said, “We will not resort to retrospective taxation. We will make our tax regime more transparent, stable and predictable. We are also simplifying processes like licences, security and environmental clearance.”
Read: Make in India fostering competitive federalism: Devendra Fadnavis
Highlighting that India has jumped 12 ranks in ease of doing business as per the latest World Bank study, Mr Modi said the government is planning to implement several additional measures to enable the smooth functioning of the enterprises. He said the government will fast-track arbitration procedures, separate commercial divisions at high court, introduce a new IPR policy and pass the bankruptcy law in Parliament.
Read: Swedish firms keen to raise India investments: Ambassador
Mr Modi exhorted global investors to join the “India unfolding growth story” by investing in the country to be part of this century’s growth story, which will belong to Asia. “Don’t wait and relax, there is immense opportunity waiting for you in India. You take one step and we will take two steps,” he said at a glittering function that showcased India’s cultural and scientific achievements, besides Indian art forms.
Addressing a large audience, which included captains of Indian industry, like Ratan Tata, Adi Godrej and Kumar Mangalam Birla, a host of other business leaders from India and abroad and the Prime Ministers of Sweden and Finland, Mr Modi strived to elaborate his achievements in the last one year in the Make in India campaign. This, according to him, has helped India attract a record amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) at a time when they were slack in most countries.
Mr Modi said India is blessed with three Ds — democracy, demography and demand. “To this we have added a fourth D: deregulation. Now India has become four-dimensional,” he said.
The government, he said, wants to channel these positive developments to increase the share of the manufacturing sector in India’s GDP to 25 per cent by 2022 from the current 12 per cent. “As much as 60 per cent of Indians are below 35, and this is the biggest strength of the country. We don’t want our youth to remain job-seekers. We want them to be job creators. The Start-Up India initiative will transform Indian youth from being job-seekers to job creators,” he said.
Earlier, addressing the event, Swedish PM Kjell Stefan Lovfen said his country is keen on partnering Indian companies in the field of energy, environment, health and defence. “The eyes of the world are in India. Earlier, it was China. The IMF chief has termed India as the bright spot in the global economy. We marvel at the growing middle class and prosperity in India. Sweden wants to be part of this transformation of the Indian economy. The Make in India initiative will be one of the enduring centrepieces of this true partnership,” he said.
