India targets BRICS to invest in key national renewal plans

Showcasing the India growth story, India has asked its BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) partners to invest in India’s flagship programmes such as ‘Make in India’, ‘Skill India’, ‘Smart Cities’.

Addressing a meet of BRICS Ministers of Industries in Moscow, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj strongly pitched India growth story and asked its partners to look at myriad opportunities available in India. During the meeting Ms Swaraj also emphasised on the need to remove structural impediments for increasing trade engagement amongst the BRICS countries. The five BRICS countries represent over 3 billion people, or 42 per cent of the world population.

“We have laid down a clear roadmap for lowering corporate taxes. There is also a renewed thrust on public investment in infrastructure. All these create immense opportunities for companies from BRICS countries to work in India,” Ms Swaraj said. India is the fastest growing economy in the world today and is Asia’s third largest economy.

The Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ is designed to make India a hub of high-value manufacturing. “The manufacturing sector in India is witnessing a new dynamism under the ‘Make in India’” Ms Swaraj said in her address to the BRCIS ministers. The minister showcased a spate of reforms taken by the government such as FDI limit in railways, defence and insurance sectors were highlighted.

“The 100 smart cities programme is altering the paradigm of urbanisation in India and opening up unparallelled investment and business opportunities,” Ms Swaraj said. Speaking about various sectors identified for intra-BRICS cooperation, the minister stressed upon Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector which makes up for more than 40 percent of the BRICS economies and generates maximum employment. The minister underlined the need for integrating these enterprises effectively into the regional and global value chains. “This can form the basis for the BRICS countries to implement new growth strategies for small and medium companies,” Ms Swaraj, who is on a three-day visit to Russia, said.

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