Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation

PM’s key note address at Invest India Confernce in Canada

  • My dear friends,Namaste! First of all, I would like to compliment Shri Prem Watsa for creating this forum. It is good to see so many investors and businesses of Canada here. I am glad you are being exposed o the tremendous investment and business opportunities in India.
  • Friends, there is one thing common to most people in the audience. It has people who take investment decisions. Decisions which assess risk. Decisions which predict return while making investment.
  • I want to ask you: What do you think about before investing in a country? Does the country have a vibrant democracy? Does the country have political stability?
  • Does the country have investment and business friendly policies? Does the country have transparency in governance? Does the country have a skilled talent pool?
  • Does the country have a large market? These are different questions, you may be asking. The undisputed answer to all these questions is one:and that is India.
  • There is an opportunity for everyone- Institutional Investors, manufacturers, supporters of innovation ecosystems and infrastructure companies.
  • There is an opportunity to invest, to set up units and to run businesses. There is an opportunity to partner with our private sector and with the governments.
  • There is an opportunity to earn as well as learn, not only that as well as to lead, there is an opportunity to grow.
  • Friends, In the post-Covid world, you will often hear of various kinds of problems -Problems of manufacturing, problems of supply chains, problems of PPE, etc. Problems are natural.
  • However, India has not let those problems be.We showed resilience and emerged as a land of solutions.
  • We provided free food grain to 800 million people and free cooking gas to around 80 million families- and for a long time.
  • Despite disrupted logistics, we were able to deliver money directly into bank accounts of more than 400 million farmers, women, poor and needy people within a matter of days.
  • This shows the strength of governance structures and systems that we have built over the last few years.
  • Friends, India is playing the role of the pharmacy to the world. We have provided medicine to around 150 countries so far during this pandemic.
  • During March-June of this year, our agricultural exports rose by 23%.This happened while the entire country was in a stringent lockdown.

 

  • Today, our manufacturing is running on full steam. Before the pandemic India hardly manufactured PPE kits. Today not only does India manufacture millions of PPE kits every month, it also exports them.
  • We are also committed to ramping up production. We want to help the entire world when it comes to vaccine production for Covid-19.
  • Friends, The India story is strong today and stronger tomorrow. Let me explain how.
  • Today, the FDI regime has been very well liberalized. We have created a friendly tax regime for Sovereign Wealth and Pension Funds.