Modi wants to make India the 'easiest' place to do business

PM says India not only offers the potential of low cost manufacturing, but it also has high quality manpower

Claiming that his government is committed to creating a policy environment which is “predictable, transparent and fair”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to make India the ‘easiest’ place to do business.

Speaking at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit on Sunday, Modi said the ‘ease of doing business’ was a prime concern for the government.

“We want to make them not only easier than earlier, not only easier than the rest, but we want to make them the easiest,” he said trying to woo investors at the global platform.

The PM said, “India has three things to its credit - democracy, demography and demand.”

India not only offers the potential of low-cost manufacturing, but it also has low-cost but high-quality manpower, he noted.

Modi stressed the need for information and communication technology, which can make governance easier and effective.

Pushing his pet project — Digital India Initiative — Modi said: “We are also keen to move towards the next generation infrastructure. Just as we need highways, we need ‘i-ways’ too.”

Under the Digital India initiative, information technology would be used to drive government processes to improve service delivery and programme implementation.

He said a single-window clearance system for projects was being set up at both Central and state levels.

“We are trying to complete the circle of economic reforms speedily. We are also keen to see that our policies are predictable. We are clear that our tax regime should be stable. In the past few months, we have taken several decisions in this direction,” the PM said, adding his government was constantly working to improve the policy framework.

In his speech, Modi cited some recent research reports to highlight India’s growth potential.

“IMF (International Monetary Fund) has predicted that India would be the second fastest growing economy in the coming years. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, India would be the only country among the world’s top economies that would increase its pace of growth this year,” he said.