New Delhi:
India will impose restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) when necessary to protect national interests, particularly given its location in a strategically sensitive region, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
During an interactive session at Wharton Business School on October 22, she also emphasised that the Modi government’s development strategy focuses on four key areas: infrastructure, investment, innovation, and inclusiveness, to transform India into a developed nation by 2047.
Sitharaman arrived in the United States on Tuesday afternoon to attend the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meetings and stopped at the University of Pennsylvania during her drive from New York to Washington, D.C.
“I cannot blindly accept FDI simply because we need investment, unmindful of where it is coming from. We want business, we want investment, but we also need some safeguards, because India is located in a neighbourhood that is very, very sensitive,” Sitharaman said.
Sitharaman also highlighted that the disclosure standards set by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) ensure transparency by providing information about the ultimate beneficiary.
“Sometimes the ultimate beneficiary is a concern not because of who it is but where it is,” she said.
She noted that many countries have regulations in place to oversee such investments.
“FDI, otherwise, is welcome; we have opened it up. Sebi has been very forward-looking in reducing the regulations,” the finance minister added.
Sitharaman projected that India may need around $100 billion in investments to achieve its desired growth rate, a figure currently ranging between $70 and $80 billion.
In 2020, India tightened security clearances as part of a broader review of investments from companies in neighbouring nations, although no specific countries were named in this process.
Viksit Bharat 2047
“In the year when we will be celebrating 100 years of Independence from British rule, that is 2047, we want to be and we aspire to be a developed country,” Sitharaman told the students.
To achieve that, the government has identified four key areas — infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusiveness, the finance minister said.
“The first is infrastructure, whether it is physical such as bridges and ports or digital which is critical for so many different purposes. The second would be to invest in it. In that comes the element of private investments. But more importantly, have public investment go in to kick-start the whole thing,” she said.
Sitharaman said the third focus area is innovation and stressed the need for innovative solutions for the problems specific to India and its aspirations.
“For many of the things that we want solutions for cannot be made somewhere and then brought here. The costs will go up and they may not be appropriate to the situation for which we want a solution. We want in-situ solutions for many of our problems. That itself becomes the challenge for innovations to work out,” she said.
The most important is inclusiveness, Sitharaman said.
“In everything that we do, we want to make sure that everybody gets included.” She also said, “Affirmative action is given in the Constitution. You will have to uplift the poor, you will have to uplift the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. It is a commitment given in the Constitution.” But other than that there is a need to address the needs of four groups — farmers, women, youth and the poor — and make sure that they get access to resources and opportunities, the minister said.
(source:news18)
