By Andalib Akhter
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has predicted that the upcoming union budget would set the template that would prepare India for the next 25 years.
“We are not only going to set the template which were set earlier but follow it and take it further for India’s next 25 years. In 2047, we look forward to our children living in India which will be far more developed,” she emphasized.
Speaking at an event organised by FICCI on Friday, the minister said, the upcoming budget will follow the spirit of earlier budgets. Ms Sitharaman asked industry to work out strategies as to how businesses operating in developed countries can look at India as a production or sourcing hub amid recession fears in the West.
Ms Sitharaman said, given that India remains one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies, foreign investors can take advantage of its growth story.
She said, government has brought in a lot of facilitation and tweaking of rules to attract foreign investment into India and is also engaging with industries who want to co-locate in the country.
Ms Sitharaman said, industry also needs to work out strategy to attract firms in advanced nations, including in Europe, which may be scouting for locations to relocate their manufacturing base away from China.
She also cautioned about a suspected long-drawn recession in a large market like Europe and asked domestic industry to better prepare for such external headwinds.
Finance Minister said, the government will also showcase India as an attractive investment destination during New Delhi’s presidency of the G20 grouping.
Ms Sitharaman said, given that India remains one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies, foreign investors can take advantage of its growth story.
Highlighting the domestic demand potential, Ms Sitharaman stated that as per the World Economic Forum’s report, there shall be an additional 140 million middle income households and 14 million high net worth individual households which will be part of India’s economy by 2030. This will provide an additional base for the domestic industry to generate demand, she added.
On the occasion Mr Sanjiv Mehta, President, FICCI said that India was on the cusp of becoming the third largest economy. The transformation policy along with reform measures taken by the government have helped strengthen the foundation for it. “I firmly believe that the industry’s own growth and profits are intertwined with the people and planet approach,” he added.
Mr Subhrakant Panda, President-Elect, FICCI said that India is better prepared than it has ever been to deal with short-term turbulence without losing sight of the huge opportunity which is there. Speaking on the upcoming Union Budget, Mr Panda added that Indian industry has great expectations that the Budget 2023 will be growth-oriented and build further on the foundation of government’s initiatives over the last eight years.