Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a strong pitch to investors promising to make India an easier place to do business with a stable tax regime and assuring them the government ‘will be available to hold your hand whenever you need us’.
“The World Bank chairman had said that if India improves its place from its abysmal ranking beyond 150, it would reap rich dividends. Let me assure him that we would work to come within the first 50 countries in this respect,” Modi said.
Asserting that the government had backed up efforts to revive the economy with concrete action, Modi said he was committed to creating a policy environment that is “predictable, transparent and fair”. Speaking at the seventh edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Modi tried to silence his critics who believe the government isn’t moving fast enough. “We are trying to complete the circle of economic reforms speedily,” the PM said.
Promoters of a couple of India’s biggest conglomerates announced large investments in Gujarat. While Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said his firm would spend R1 lakh crore over the next few years, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said his group would invest R20,000 crore in chemicals and metals ventures, although no timeline was mentioned.
RioTinto CEO Samuel Walsh said his firm’s diamond project would create 30,000 jobs while Suzuki Motor’s new car plant in Gujarat will be completed in mid 2017, chairman Osamu Suzuki.
“We are not only making commitments and announcements. We are backing them with concrete action at the level of policy and practice,” Modi said in his 30-minute address to India Inc and delegates from over 100 countries including high profile dignitaries, secretary of state, US administration John Kerry, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki Moon and World Bank President Jim Young Kim.
The policy for smart cities, the prime minister said, had been backed by liberalising Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in construction while the plan to modernise Indian Railways had been followed up by opening up the sector to 100% FDI. The defence space too allowed for 49% FDI and the government was also raising the FDI limit for the insurance sector.
Modi cited an International Monetary Fund forecast that said India would be the second fastest growing economy in the coming years and pointed out that growth, in the first two quarters of the current fiscal, had been 1% higher than in the corresponding period of last fiscal.
He said 100 million bank accounts had been opened, in just four months, under the financial inclusion programme – Jan Dhan Yojana.
The Prime Minister defended the recent amendments to the Land Acquisition Bill saying they would facilitate development in remote areas while ensuring better returns for the farming community. Going forward, Modi said that his priority would be to build infrastructure through public-private partnership; connecting and modernizing ports; building low cost airports to improve regional connectivity; enhancing broadband connectivity; and upgrading manufacturing industries.