New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Saturday that the priority given to policy, good governance and citizens’ welfare in the past decade has resulted in India becoming a robust economy with a GDP growing 7.7% in the last six months. Thanks to his regime’s transformative reforms, the world is looking at India with hope and as a strong contender to lead the Global South.
In a virtual address to the second edition of the Infinity Forum, a global thought leadership platform on fintech, the Prime Minister said India is a symbol of resilience and progress at a juncture when the world is facing geopolitical tensions, high inflation and growing debt levels.
“India’s growth story has shown to the world that when policy is accorded top priority, when all strength is put behind good governance and when welfare of the country and its people is the sole basis of economic policies, then what will be the outcome can be seen from the 7.7% growth in the first six months of this fiscal year,” Modi said.
He recalled the IMF statement in September that global growth in 2023 will be due in some measure to India.
In July, the World Bank had said that India gave hope amid global challenges. In March, the Australian Prime Minister had said India was in a strong position to provide leadership. The World Economic Forum had said some months back that India had cut red tape and that the investment climate had become better.
“The whole world has pinned its hopes on India – this has not happened just like that,” Modi said. “It is a reflection of the strengthening economy and the transformative reforms undertaken in the last 10 years. These reforms have made our economic foundations strong. During the pandemic, when most countries were focussing only on fiscal and monetary relief, we focused on long-term growth and expanding our economic capacity.”
India has made the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in many sectors more flexible, lowered the compliance burden, and signed Free Trade Agreements with three countries.
An important aim of reforms is to increase integration with the global economy, he underlined, referring to Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) and the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). “GIFT and IFSCA are a part of the efforts to integrate Indian financial markets with the global market under India’s larger economic reforms,” Modi said. “Even in these times of global economic uncertainties, IFSCA has formulated 27 regulations and more than 10 frameworks which will open new paths of investment.”
