India becoming global hub for innovation with startup ecosystem: Goyal

Calling upon neighbouring countries to work together to transform the subcontinent, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said India is becoming the global hub for innovation with the third-largest startup ecosystem.

Addressing "CII: Partnership Summit -Ministerial Meeting" virtually, Goyal said India is looking for FTAs with like-minded nations with transparency and mutual benefit and growth as key pillars.

He added that India is also reviewing existing Free trade Agreements (FTA)with ASEAN, Japan, Korea to strengthen them and forging enhanced trade alliances with countries like UAE, EU, UK, Israel, Australia, Canada, Russia, Oman and the GCC.

The union minister called for enhancing India's economic ties with the nations of the Southern African Customs Union which consists of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho.

Goyal said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, India has emerged as a source of resilience and a trusted Partner and added that we had tried to the best of our ability to meet all our international service commitments.

The Minister also assured that India would continue helping nations in need as we intrinsically believed in brotherhood, partnership and the need to work together to solve problems collectively. He added that India had focussed on its neighbourhood during the pandemic and stood ready to support all its friends with vaccines and medical supplies.

Highlighting India's initiatives in investment promotion, Goyal said that the government has been inviting businesses of other countries to seize investment opportunities as 'India is the place to be' with its accessibility, choice, openness and opportunities.

Goyal said that the Indian economy has recovered sharply and added that the rising economic indicators point towards 'an India shaping up for a growth decade'. He said that India had seen a GDP growth of 8.4 per cent in Q2, high exports, high FDI and large amounts of investments being done by Indian companies in other nations. Goyal urged his counterparts to invite Indian companies to invest in their economies and help create jobs.

The union minister outlined six areas on which India is focussing to build a sustainable, inclusive and resilient ecosystem for future partnerships; Trade Agreements, Investments, India's strengths as a supply chain alternative, Ease of Doing Business, Innovation and Sustainability.

Listing potential sectors for investments including healthcare, infrastructure, defence, energy, civil aviation, insurance and Technology, Goyal said that various schemes to facilitate trade and investment, including PLI Scheme, Liberalised FDI Policy, etc were being executed.

Goyal said that India's diverse business landscape, skilled workforce, relatively low labour cost and initiatives to boost infrastructure such as National Infrastructure Pipeline, GatiShakti, National Monetisation Plan would certainly give a fillip to investments and yield good returns.

Speaking of India's quest to improve Ease of Doing Business, he said that initiatives like the National Single Window System and the Industrial Land Bank were helping improve the ease of doing business significantly.

Piyush Goyal said that India is becoming the global hub for innovation with the third-largest Startup ecosystem with 79 Unicorns. He said that Startups have the potential to catalyse India's integration in global value chains and create global impact.

Emphasizing upon India's initiatives in the direction of Sustainable Development, the union minister said that the country will reach its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030 and meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy, one of the world's most ambitious Renewable energy programs. It may be noted that India has pledged to achieve Net Zero Emissions by 2070.

The summit was attended by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Qassim Al-Abdullah Al-Thani, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Qatar, Loknath Sharma, Minister of Economic Affairs, Royal Government of Bhutan, Gebre Meskel Chala, Minister for Trade and Regional Integration, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and Faiyaz Koya, Minister for Commerce and Trade, Fiji.

Further, Fayyaz Ismail, Minister for Economic Development, Maldives, Soodesh Satkam Callichurn, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Protection, Mauritius, Dr Pwint San, Minister for Commerce, Myanmar, Bandula Gunawardhana, Minister of Trade, Sri Lanka, Chhuon Dara, Secretary of State, Ministry of Commerce, Kingdom of Cambodia and Giancarlo Giorgetti, Minister of Economic Development, Italy also attended the summit.