The Prime Minister addressed FICCI's 93rd AGM today.PM Modi at FICCI AGM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today delivered the inaugural address at FICCI’s (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) 93rd Annual General Meeting (AGM). The Prime Minister, stressed on India’s economic recovery and how the government in focused on reforms to aid that recovery. Talking about the three Agriculture reforms introduced earlier this year, PM Modi said that the reforms have been undertaken to benefit the small farmers in India who now have the option to sell their produce anywhere across the country. The Prime Minister also asked the private sector to step up and help the Indian farmers to boost his produce, increase his income and strengthen the agriculture sector in India.
FICCI’s AGM, a high powered event, attracts industry captains from across the globe, diplomats, and policy makers. FICCI’s 93rd AGM is based on the theme ‘Inspire India’ and will see key dignitaries including Satya Nadella of Microsoft along with N Chandrasekaran of Tata Group, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others. FICCI’s Annual Expo 2020 will be shedding light on India’s manufacturing and services sector.
Highlights
The Prime Minister said that barriers between sectors have hindered in growth India's growth. "The reforms that the country is seeing, are working to take these barriers down. Recent agriculture reforms are a part of this. Agriculture and allied sectors such as food processing, storage, and cold chain, have had barrier between them but these are being taken down now," he added.
'When a sector grows in a vibrant economy, other sectors benefit from it too. But, we have seen barriers between sectors,' Prime Minister Modi said. He added that this has acted as a hurdle for the growth of various sectors.
The Prime Minister said that the government is working on involving all stakeholder together and aided by this approach sectors such as manufacturing, MSME, Agriculture and even Infrastructire are witnessing reforms.
A decisive government doest not want to control everything, the Prime Minister said at FICCI's AGM today. He added that the country has witnessed government that have exercised exessive control in the past. "We have seen this approach has made things bad. A visionary and decisive government involves ever stakeholder so that it can utilise its full potential." he said.
"Now India is pacing ahead in vaccine manufacturing. This will benefit India but even other nations of the world see hope this way," said Prime Minister Modi.
India's agriculture sector has been lacking the support of the private sector, PM Modi said at FICCI's AGM. 'The more support farmers get the better their produce will be,' he added.
"When sugarcane farmers were struggling to sell their produce, we changed that by encouraging ethanol production in India," PM Modi said. He added that we are now moving towards 10% blending in petrol which would benefit sugarcane farming.
India's agriculture sector now more vibrant, PM Modi said. "Now Farmers can sell their produce anywhere. Farmers have the option to now sell their product digitally. The aim here is to increase the income of farmers of India," he added.
Rural India is witnessing a huge turnaround, said PM Modi. He highlighted that active internet users in rural India are now more than urban India. Tier-2 and tier-3 cities have over 50% of our startups, the Prime Minister said.
PM Modi said that the age-old barriers that were built around the agriculture sector will be taken down with the new agriculture reforms. He added that the farmers will get the benefit to sell their produce to private players.
Reforms in the agriculture sector are aimed at breaking down the barrier that are there in the agriculture and aligned sectors, PM Modi said.
In the past country has fallen prey to over control by the governmen, the Prime Minister said. "We have seen what this thinking has done. In the last 6 years, India has seen a government that is dedicated towards serving its citizens," he added. The Prime Minister said that India is working on reforming sectors like tech, real estate, agricultute, and other sectors. India's corporate tax most competitive.
PLI schemes is for those sectors where India has the potential to become global champion, said PM Modi.
"We have given our citizens priority," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at FICCI's AGM. He added that the world's confidence in India has been strengthened in the past few months as he highlighted the FDI inflows.
Things have changed from where they were earlier this year, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at FICCI's AGM. Today the economic indicators are inpiring us, he added. The Prime Minsiter attributed the turnaround of the economy to the farmers, youth of India and industry captains.
We have seen a lot change in 2020, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at FICCI's AGM. "When we remember the times of coronavirus a few years from now some might not beleive what we have seen. However, the pace at which things went bad, at a faster pace we have recovered." said.
In the near term there are reasons for opotimism, said N Chandrasekaran of Tata Sons. He added that various high frequency indicators are rebounding, contraction in economy is smaller. "While this rebound looks strong it is coming on the back of a loss of output we need to recover and accelerate."
India's strength is out large talent pool and we can leverage this to become key player in global value chains, siad N Chandrasekaran of Tata Sons. The pandemic only accelerates this opportunity for India, he added.
If we need to realise the idea that 2020 belong to India we need to enable talen, data and bandwidth, said N Chandrasekaran of Tata Group.
"We are going to see an improved economic condition in the coming year," said Tarun Bajaj, Secretary, Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance while adding that that the government's focus is on the economy.
Addressing the virtual Panel Discussion on 'Inspired India' with Secretaries to GoI, at FICCI's 93rd Annual General Convention, Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Govt of India said that PLI Scheme introduced for the mobile will be a gamechanger and will push the electronic manufacturing as well. The government has already launched the PLI Scheme in the medical devices and API sector.
Earlier at the curtain raiser for FICCI's 93rd AGM, NK Singh, Chairman, Finance Commission, Govt of India said that there is a need to have a far more credible policy for rationalization of both centrally sponsored schemes and central outlays.
Alogn with industry capitains from across the globe, FICCI's AGM will also see policy makers and the country's top most leadership attend the event. Amit Shah, Minister for Home Affairs has been invited to the event along with Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Finance & Corporate Affair. Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; Piyush Goyal, Minister for Commerce & Industry and Railways; S Jaishankar, Minister for External Affairs; Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Electronics & IT and Communications and Law & Justice; R K Singh, Minister of State (IC) for Power and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship have also been invited by the indsutry body.
FICCI's AGM will also see N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Group and Harsh Pati Singhania, Vice Chairman & Managing Director JK Paper Ltd, Pankaj Patel, Chairman Cadila Healthcare Ltd, Sandip Somany, Immediate Past President, FICCI, Vice Chairman & Managing Director HSIL Ltd among other global indsutry captains.
Visitors to the FICCI Annuak Expo can send meeting requests and fix their meetings with the exhibitors as per their convenience. The event will be promoted extensively across India and the globe through regional chambers and sectoral associations which are FICCI members and through Indian Missions all over the world.
A comprehensive pavilion of stalls powered by an AI-enabled search option for ease of accessibility, on a single seamless platform. Products and services across 50+ sectors to be showcased in structured exhibition halls segregated as per sectors.
Testament to India's economic recovery, the IIP data for October came in at 3.6% on year basis, highest in eight months. However, analysts do advise caution in interpreting the data as they believe that the strength of the recovery will be known if it outlasts the festive season through December.
After the sharp recovery in the secodn quarter, experts see India's growth trajectory to be better than earlier predicted. The latest among these is Fitch Ratings. Fitch Ratings revised up India’s GDP projection to a contraction of 9.4 per cent due to a strong economic recovery in the second quarter of the current fiscal year. It earlier suggested that India’s GDP may shrink by 10.5 per cent in the FY21.
The Prime Minister will be talking about India's economy growth and its recovery from the pandemic. After having slipped 23.9% in the first quarter of this fiscal year, India's GDP has made a strong comback to fall 7.5% in the fiscal secodn quarter.
This year, on the side-lines of the AGM, FICCI has announced the FICCI Annual Expo 2020, a one-of-its-kind virtual event in the country focused on manufacturing and services sectors.
"We are delighted to share that Hon'ble Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi will grace FICCI's 93rd AGM. India, under his leadership, is an inspired nation, which can deal with any challenge. Like, India's handling of COVID-19. FICCI members are waiting for the Prime Minister to share his thoughts and vision for the industries role in 'Inspired India'," said Sangita Reddy, President, FICCI.
The Prime Minister will address FICCI's AGM today through video conferencing. PM Modi will be talking on a wide range of subjects relating to the Indian economy and how India’s growth benefits the poorest as well as the marginalised.