‘India will contribute to being an engine of growth for global economy’

The confident message was delivered at the first Indo-Pacific Business Summit organized by the Indian foreign ministry and the Confederation of Indian Industry lobby group.

In his speech the minister that Asia’s third largest economy “will contribute to being an engine of growth for the global economy” brushing aside doubts about India’s economic recovery.

“And we will be very much a part of more reliable and resilient supply chains that the post-covid world requires,” the minister said as part of a strong message to the business community in the Indo-Pacific region that stretches from the eastern shores of Africa to the west coast of the US.

The business meet aims to forge stronger economic bonds among countries in the region in the face of an aggressively rising China.

“The Indo-Pacific – a region in which we are so deeply invested historically – will be an arena of particular activity and energy,” he added at the event that saw ministerial participation from the US, Australia, France, Vietnam, Mauritius and the Maldives and who all identified India as a key country and economy in the Indo-Pacific region.

Highlighting some of the steps taken by the Indian government to speed up the post pandemic recovery, Jaishankar said the rebuilding process included major economic reforms as well.

“On health, our programme of wider health coverage has been accelerated by the rapid expansion last year of the health infrastructure. Currently, mass vaccination and addressing the ongoing wave are the focus. But the goal is to transform the sector entirely by augmenting human resources, equipment and capacities,” the minister said. The reference was possibly to an announcement by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week in which she announced a fresh allocation of ₹ 23,220 crore. This was apart from the announcement that the government would be spending ₹64,180 crore over the next six years to improve healthcare services available across primary to tertiary care facilities made by the finance minister in the annual budget in February.

“On the digital side, the expansion of connectivity, a skills initiative and a start-up culture are helping to change the game,” Jaishankar said. “On infrastructure, a range of initiatives and reforms that are unfolding even as we speak will surely spur greater investment,” he said.

In agriculture, the government had initiated steps to empower farmers and enable freer trade besides aiming to put in place post-harvest infrastructure.

“And across 13 key sectors, performance-linked initiatives promise to upscale manufacturing,” the minister said referring to the production linked incentives announced last year.

“Bold measures have just recently been taken to promote tourism,” he said referring to Sitharaman’s announcement last week of a waiver of visa fees for the first 500,000 foreign visitors, applying for tourist visas when the government opens inbound travel.

“And all of this is encapsulated by a framework that envisages an India of deeper strengths, greater capacities and more responsibility. And not least, in making it much easier to do business,” the minister said.