Deregulation Is Powerful Catalyst For Industrial Growth: Nirmala Sitharaman
Sitharaman said that over the last decade India has undertaken several structural reforms, rationalising over 20,000 compliances, decriminalising business laws and digitising public services to reduce friction
New Delhi: In an attempt to attract more foreign investors into India, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that over the last decade India has undertaken several structural reforms, rationalising over 20,000 compliances, decriminalising business laws and digitising public services to reduce friction. “Our experience with implementing the business reform action plan by different state governments has demonstrated that deregulation is a powerful catalyst for industrial growth,” she said, while addressing the Hoover Institute in California.
Over the past decade, Sitharaman also highlighted several achievements of the government, saying that a significant thrust on infrastructure development has also created a strong foundation for manufacturing-led growth by bolstering investor confidence. “This has been enabled by a more than fourfold increase in the Union government’s capital expenditure between 2017–18 and the 2025–26 Budget,” the finance minister said.
On small and medium businesses, she also said that a vibrant and thriving network of small and medium enterprises is essential for domestic manufacturing to grow. “The government has undertaken numerous initiatives to support MSMEs, from easing access to credit, redefining size thresholds, facilitating prompt payments from large buyers and simplifying compliance burdens,” the finance minister said.
“The open network for digital commerce or ONDC, launched in April 2022, has successfully onboarded more than 764 thousand vendors across 616 cities. Our next focus is reducing regulatory frictions, digitising approvals, and integrating MSMEs into global value chains. Special support to women-led and rural enterprises will help enhance economic opportunities and ensure more inclusive growth,” she added.
On digital public infrastructure or DPI, the finance minister also boasted of the government’s achievement, saying that some of the works done in India stand out and one such example is that of DPI and its success. “More than a billion digital identities have been created using DPI. Using these digital identities bank accounts of people were created and during Covid-19 pandemic, money was transferred by the government in a click of a button,” she said.
On Monday, she also met several IT industry leaders, including Google Cloud CEO and Turing CEO, and invited them to explore opportunities for technical collaboration and investment. During a bilateral meeting with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, Sitharaman encouraged them to explore local linkages in India for territorial collaboration and to develop tech for India and the world market under the 'Make In India' initiative.
During another meeting with Turing CEO Jonathan Siddharth, she also highlighted India’s policy framework for artificial intelligence (AI) and encouraged his company to explore opportunities for collaboration and fruitful engagement. “Siddharth expressed his desire to see India at the forefront of the AI revolution and spoke about working in the domain of AI with India and through Indian contributors to create a sovereign model that can serve as a template for the world,” the finance ministry said in a series of posts on X.
