Bloomberg GBF: NaMo says ‘come to India’ to global business leaders in New York; 10 big takeaways

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum about ‘Restoring Global Stability’ on September 25th. The summit was attended by eminent business and political leaders like Bill Clinton and former International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde.

Here are the key takeaways from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum:

1. He said if you want to invest in a market where there is scale, come to India. If you want to invest in one of the largest infrastructure ecosystem and urbanisation, then come to India. India is going to invest 1.3 trillion dollars in modern infrastructure. Also, lakhs of crores of rupees are being spent on the social infrastructure of the country.
2. Four factors that make India reliable for investors and make India unique are democracy, demography, demand and decisiveness.
3. He said that we have scrapped 50 old laws that were a hindrance in the path of development in the first 3-4 months of my new government. This is just the beginning, there’s more to come. It’s a golden opportunity to partner India.
4. The opening of the defence sector has been like never before.
5. People are moving up the economic ladder, defeating poverty. He urged investors to invest in a market that has scale and said that India’s middle class is a huge segment that has a global outlook.
6. India has banned single-use plastic in the country. A big movement has been started to discourage its usage. A nationwide campaign against single-use plastic will be held on Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary on 2 October. He added India is also running ahead of time in renewable energy and has already achieved 120 GW. The new target of 450 GW for the near future.
7. He also said “India has the 3rd biggest coal reserve in the world. We invite the world to bring their technology for coal gasification in India that will produce clean energy. The gas can then be used for mobility as well as a source of energy.”
8. He emphasised that India’s youth are the largest users of the app economy. From food to movies to transport, startups are acing everything and infrastructure is expanding at a fast pace. Modernisation of cities with citizen friendly infrastructure is rapidly increasing.
9. India can become the world’s food basket as it moves towards organic farming. The government has started the world’s largest health assurance scheme that covers more people than the population of US, Canada and Mexico combined. The optical fibre network is reaching 600,000 villages and focus on disaster resilient infrastructure will be high in the coming days.
10. He also talked about the importance of social media and how it has become a powerful instrument of democracy. It’s encouraging to see established media take up initiatives to counter fake news.