FICCI delegation highlights priority areas for fostering economic growth

A delegation of the industry chamber FICCI, today highlighted the significance of developing national standards, benchmarked against the world standards, in each of the 25 sectors identified under the Make in India campaign by involving different government departments in the effort.

The delegation was lead by Harsh Pati Singhania, Past President, FICCI and Vice Chairman, J K Paper Ltd., met Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce and Industry, highlighting the major concerns impacting the economy including manufacturing sector and the regulatory environment, among others.

FICCI emphasized the need for up-gradation of existing industrial clusters into these zones. Among other recommendations, FICCI suggested leveraging Government Procurement; supporting country's project exports; improving the railway network and logistics within the country; and boosting defence production via shortening the decision-making process as other important instruments to promote domestic manufacturing.

FICCI also reiterated the need to review the existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) from the point of view of domestic competitiveness of the manufacturing sector.

Complementing the Government's efforts to promote Start-ups, the key suggestions by FICCI included a standard definition for Start-ups, providing recurring assistance in the initial 3 years of operation directed towards both capital and operating expenditure along with providing tax incentives to the Angel investors and Venture Capitalists for stimulating investments.

Given the significance of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a country like India which has huge capital requirement for meeting its growth aspirations, FICCI pressed that it is important to provide complete clarity on any FDI announcement within a short time frame in order to retain interests of foreign investors.

Specific example of FDI in insurance sector was highlighted wherein the clarification on nuance of FDI was provided several months after the passage of the bill.

Other members of the delegation included Sidharth Birla, Past President, FICCI and Chairman, Xpro India Ltd; Rashesh Shah, Vice President, FICCI and Chairman, Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd amongst others.