Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has chaired an India-UK Investor Roundtable in London, attracting around 60 UK investors representing various pension funds, insurance companies, banks and other financial institutions.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the high-level roundtable on Tuesday evening outlined the priorities of the government for enabling sustained economic growth and investment opportunities, with the policy support that is shaping "New India".
It highlighted the efforts being made by the ministry to pursue process and governance reforms to reduce compliance burden and ease regulation for facilitating an enabling environment for business and investments.
India offers a compelling growth opportunity for foreign banks and the government of India is actively encouraging foreign investment in the banking sector, Sitharaman told the gathering.
With an expanding middle class and strong and stable policy environment, the Union Finance Minister said that India is set to become the sixth-largest Insurance market by 2032 with the expected growth at 7.1 per cent CAGR from 2024-2028 one of the fastest growing insurance markets among G20 countries, the Ministry of Finance readout said.
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Sitharaman also informed the investors that the Indian securities market is among the first major markets to fully adopt the T+1 settlement, as early as 2023, and India's market capitalisation stands at $4.6 trillion, currently ranked fourth globally.
The T+1 settlement means that trades are settled one business day after the transaction date.
The Union Finance Minister spoke at length about India's maiden International Financial Services Centre GIFT-IFSC an offshore zone that is endowed with an enabling ecosystem with considerable tax exemptions, skilled manpower, foreign currency transactions, and strategic geographical location, the ministry noted.
The gathering was informed that as of March 2025, more than 800 entities across banks, capital markets, insurance, fintech, aircraft leasing, ship leasing, bullion exchange, among others have been registered with the IFSCA.
Underlining India's digital economy as a significant contributor to its economic growth, accounting for 11.74 per cent of the GDP in 2022-23, Sitharaman informed the participants that India stands third globally in terms of the number of homegrown unicorns.
She flagged India as home to a strong fintech ecosystem, driven by a large tech-savvy population, supportive government policies, and an innovative startup ecosystem.
The sector has witnessed a rapid surge in fintechs over the last five years, as is evident from an astounding 87 per cent adoption rate against the global average of 64 per cent and 15 per cent share of global fintech funding.
The participants shared their views on the reforms pursued by the government and gave feedback and observation on the existing policy framework. They also spoke about their keen interest and commitment for a deeper and broad-based investment collaboration between the UK and India, the ministry said.
Sitharaman, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, is on a visit to the UK for the 13th Ministerial India-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) on Wednesday when she will be holding bilateral talks with her British counterpart Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
In a changing world, this government is accelerating trade deals with the rest of the world to back British business and provide the security working people deserve, Reeves said in a statement ahead of the EFD.
We are going further, faster to create the best possible conditions for British business by working to reduce barriers to trade. That's why the Business Secretary [Jonathan Reynolds] and I are today meeting with India's Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, as part of our two nations' Economic and Financial Dialogue as we seek to secure a new trade deal, she said.
Reeves said that topics of growth and global issues will be on the agenda for the talks, as well as how to unleash potential across various sectors to create jobs, investment and trade opportunities.
The ongoing India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations are expected to be in focus during Sitharaman's meeting with Reynolds.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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The Asian Development Bank will lower its growth forecast for Asia further after the region was hit the hardest by tariffs from the US.
The multilateral institution said the US tariffs will shave growth in the region by a third of a percentage point in 2025 and a full percentage point in 2026.
In its annual outlook report released Wednesday, numbers for which were calculated before the April 2 tariff announcements by President Donald Trump, ADB forecast growth in emerging Asia to moderate to 4.9% in 2025 and 4.7% in 2026. This will get further revised down in its report in July, ADB’s Chief Economist Albert Park said in a virtual press conference Tuesday.
Asia has been hit the hardest by the tariffs because of the concentration of countries that run a trade surplus with the US. “Full implementation of US tariff will hurt growth substantially in the entire region,” said Park. “Large uncertainties remain,” but some of the tariffs may be rolled back.
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While the tariffs will impact China the most, Asia’s largest economy has progressively lessened its dependence on US demand. However, other countries in the region have filled in that space and will be impacted severely, the ADB warned. About 3% of regional GDP depends on final demand from the US, Park said.
Even as China has retaliated against the US tariffs, the ADB does not expect other countries to undertake such measures as that will exacerbate the negative impact. Countries trying to competitively devalue their currencies will likely be hit by additional tariffs by the US, warned Principal Economist John Beirne.
The multilateral institution suggested countries in the region cooperate and engage in more trade between themselves, a trend that is already underway in Asia. They should also reach out to the US, Park said.
Governments will also need to support their firms and workers from displacement to tide over the difficult period, the ADB officials said. However, if the high tariffs become permanent, such efforts will be unsustainable, they said.
The ADB officials also warned India of celebrating a relatively lower tariff as an opportunity as there is no certainty the tariffs would be here to stay. “You have to be cautious in celebrating 26% tariffs,” said Park. India’s tariff is lower than China’s 54% and regional manufacturing rival Vietnam’s 46% duty.
Investors tend to scale back their investments in times of uncertainty and any decision also depends on other issues such as better infrastructure, energy, logistics, and access to supply chains, said Abdul Abiad, director, macroeconomics research at ADB.
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