Economic fundamentals strong, India best place for investment: PM Modi

Doing business in the country easier because of its democracy and reforms, he tells Karnataka investor summit

India is the best place for global investors and a reliable player in supply chains after Covid-19, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

India is growing rapidly despite global uncertainties and aims to be a developed nation by 2047, he said at the inaugural function of Karnataka's Global Investors Meet (GIM) via video conferencing.

“Investing in India means investing in inclusion, in democracy, and investing for the world, and for a better, cleaner, and safer planet,” said Modi. “Instead of trapping the investors in the red tape, we created an environment of the red carpet for investment."

He explained the change of approach from 9-10 years ago when the country was grappling with policy and implementation-related issues. “Instead of making new complicated laws, we rationalised them,” said Modi.

India received a record foreign investment of $84 billion last year. In uncertain times, most nations are convinced about the fundamentals of the Indian economy. India is moving with the world and working with it. “India could assure the world about the supply of medicines and vaccines in the period of the disrupted supply chain,” he said.

Modi said that even in a global crisis, analysts, and economists have hailed India as a bright spot. “We are continuously working towards cementing our fundamentals to further strengthen India’s economy with each passing day,” he said.

Modi said the reforms his government had carried out included GST (goods and services tax), IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code), Banking reforms, UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and the abolition of 1500 outdated laws and 40 thousand unnecessary compliances. He also said that steps like decriminalisation of many company law provisions, faceless assessment, new avenues for FDI (foreign direct investment), liberalisation of drone rules, geospatial and space sector and defence sector are bringing unprecedented energy. Modi said that the number of operational airports has doubled in the last 8 years and Metro has expanded in more than 20 cities.

Highlighting PM-GatiShakti National Master Plan, Modi said that it is aimed at integrated infrastructure development. He explained that a road map is prepared not just for developing infrastructure but also for existing infrastructure while the most efficient route is discussed in implementing the plan. Modi stressed the emphasis on last-mile connectivity and ways to improve the product or service by making it world-class.

He said that Karnataka continues to be ranked the best for ease of doing business. He underlined, “400 of the Fortune 500 companies are here and out of 100 plus unicorns of India, more than 40 are in Karnataka".

The Karnataka summit is aimed at attracting investors and setting up development agenda for the next decade. The speakers at the event include some of the top industry leaders including Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sajjan Jindal and Vikram Kirloskar.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the event in Bengaluru will attract an investment of more than Rs 5 trillion. The government also said it expects an employment generation of over five lakh when the investment is realised.