Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met a clutch of America’s top IT sector leaders, pension fund managers and institutional investors in San Francisco on Monday, and mooted strengthening of the India-US economic collaboration to enable partnerships and investments in sectors such as semiconductors, nuclear power, pharmaceuticals and quantum computing.
Speaking at the Stanford University in California, the Finance Minister flagged a threefold increase in trade restrictions since 2019 with both advanced and emerging economies striving to protect domestic production and jobs. “At first glance, these developments appear formidable, and yet they are full of possibilities… new opportunities for deeper participation present themselves,” Sitharaman said.
Global trade and investment landscapes are being reimagined to bring about a better balance between externally-led growth and domestic growth, she noted, while exuding confidence about sustaining India’s economic trajectory.
“When you have stability in government, consistency in policy, predictability in tax regime investments then growth can be planned and executed, even with this kind of a global uncertainty,” she emphasised.
The government wants to ramp up the share of manufacturing sector jobs from 12 per cent to 23 per cent through a focus on sunrise sectors, the minister said, adding that expanding manufacturing activity is critical to absorb a youthful workforce, reduce co-dependencies and build competitive global supply chains. Sustaining India’s growth momentum over the next two decades, requires a fresh approach grounded in bold reforms, stronger domestic capacities, renewed institutional partnerships and adaptive strategies suited for the evolving global landscape, she remarked. “Our next focus is reducing regulatory frictions, digitising approvals and integrating MSMEs into the global value chain,” Sitharaman said.
Later in the day, she attended a roundtable with various pension fund managers and institutional investors along with Finance Secretary Ajay Seth. She also held bilateral meetings with tech firm bosses, including Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and Turing CEO Jonathan Siddharth, and invited them to explore opportunities for technical collaboration and investments.
(With inputs from PTI)
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