Nirmala rolls out red carpet for foreign investors at India-US biz council meet

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<strong>Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday apprised foreign investors such as Dell, SoftBank, Air Products and Mastercard of the investment opportunities in India at the Global Investors Roundtable organised by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.</strong></p>
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MetLife, Prudential and Warburg Pincus were amongst the other companies that participated in the video conference.  </p>
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The event provided investors with an opportunity to engage with the Finance Minister and senior officials of the Indian Government to discuss potential investment opportunities and deliberate on the role of ongoing policy reforms which offer major incentives to investors and increase the ease of doing business in India.   </p>
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She said that there has been a significant drop in new COVID infections in the country as the second coronavirus wave was receding which would pave the way for an economic recovery and macroeconomic stability looking ahead.</p>
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The Finance Minister said new opportunities were emerging for foreign investors with recent FDI reforms, privatisation policy and productivity linked incentive scheme for setting up manufacturing facilities in the country.</p>
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She said the fiscal situation is under control as tax collections had picked up and was expected to improve further.</p>
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She pointed out that India had seen 15 new unicorns (new companies valued above $1 billion) emerging in the last 5 years reflecting the growing startup ecosystem to be amongst the best in the world.</p>
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The Finance Minister pointed out that macro-economic stability, infrastructure-led economic growth opportunities, financial sector reforms, and the country’s positioning as a strong player in global supply chains are contributing to the rise of India as a global economic powerhouse.</p>
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Finance Minister Sitharaman spoke about going ahead with an overall vision to build a self-reliant modern India driven by 5 “I’s”: Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation. She said the country is committed for a long term relationship with US investors and proposes to meet twice every year.</p>
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Economic affairs Secretary Ajay Seth highlighted about the broad themes of Budget 2021 and how changes made are far reaching and set the tone of interactive discussion that followed.</p>
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The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) is a non-profit organization, with the primary objective of strengthening the India-US bilateral and strategic partnership through policy advocacy in the fields of economic growth, entrepreneurship, employment-creation, and innovation.</p>