PM Narendra Modi’s pitches nation as global investment destination

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a renewed pitch presenting India as an investment destination while highlighting his government’s vision of fighting global economic challenges presented by exigencies such as coronavirus through the principle of self-reliance. He said that India is emerging as a land of opportunity while listing the conditions for attracting investments.

PM Modi’s remarks came during the keynote address at the India Ideas Summit being hosted by the US-India Business Council.

The Prime Minister said the global economy has been too focused on efficiency and optimization when focus on building resilience against economic shock was needed. It has taken a global pandemic to remind us of its importance, he said.

“Efficiency is a good thing, but on the way we forgot to focus on something equally important, that is resilience against external shocks. It has taken a global pandemic to remind us, how important resilience is,” he said.

He added that this can be achieved by stronger economic domestic capacities through improving domestic capacity for manufacturing, restoring the health of the financial system and diversification of international trade.

“India is contributing towards a prosperous and resilient world through the clarion call of an Atma Nirbhar Bharat. For that we await your partnership. Today there is global optimism towards India. This is because India offers a perfect combination of openness opportunities and options,” the prime minister said.

“Open minds make open markets, open markets lead to greater prosperity. These are principles both India and the USA agree. And during the last six years to make this economy more open and reform oriented.”

In the backdrop of the current coronavirus crisis, the prime minister added that the international approach to the future should be more human centric one. “Our growth agenda must have the poor and vulnerable at its core,” he said repeating a theme he has promoted since the G meet held earlier this year.

Earlier, speaking at the summit, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo described India as an important partner and a key pillar of US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy.

“We’ve invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G-, where we’ll advance the economic prosperity network,” he said.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar, too, had advanced an argument saying India and the US needed to resolve the pending problems in trade relations and move into something bigger. He had addressed the summit earlier in the day.

He added that the two countries had the ability to shape a larger global agenda since they had convergence on the “big picture”.

He also advocated key principles including recognition of trusted talent, creation of more resilient supply chain etc for achieving the objective.