Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launching 'Make in India' campaign in its four day Australia visit has invited Australian businesses to “invest and make in India” and to be a part of India's growth story and said that the sectors like railways, defence and manufacturing now offer huge scope for foreign investments with liberalised FDI norms. He also listed out various reform measures undertaken by the Modi government in the last 22 months.
Jaitley further said that India has shown a great resilience despite global economic downturn. He added “For two consecutive years, we are the fastest growing economy in the world. When we measure ourselves by our own standards, we believe that 7.5 per cent does not reflect our true potential”. Finance Minister further said that India could manage to become a very low-cost service provider but failed to transform into a low-cost manufacturing and now there is an opportunity for the same. He said that Manufacturing must occupy a space and global investors must look at India.
However, he said that India faces three major challenges - it needs to boost exports in view of shrinking global trade, increase private investment and is hoping for a better monsoon this year after insufficient rains for two consecutive years.