Calling India as the most favourable destination for foreign investment, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday urged foreign investors to reap rich dividends by investing in the country's infrastructure, MSMEs, banks, NBFCs and other sectors.
Addressing the India Idea Summit orgsed by the US-India Business Council, jointly with the US Chamber of Commerce, the Minister said, "We need to create more jobs. Without that, we cannot solve the problem of poverty which is the most important agenda of the government. And for that, we need foreign investment especially in the MSMEs, NBFCs, banks; and infrastructure."
Referring to the COVID-19 pandemic as a temporary phase, Gadkari said the country was confident of winning the "economic war" and the government has taken a number of steps to overcome the crisis.
At present, he told the investors virtually that liquidity is the most important for the country's economy.
"And therefore, we are focusing on how we can develop MSMSE's and their growth in India, with nearly 50 per cent of India's exports coming from the sector. For the MSME industry, we have raised the investment limit significantly," he said.
For micro-industries, the investment bracket was earlier around Rs 25 lakhs, but now, it has been converted to Rs 1 crore. For the small scale industries, the investment was Rs 5 crores previously, but now it comes to 10 crores. Similarly, for medium-scale industries, the investment was Rs 10 crores and now it has been increased to 50 crores.
"In the present world economic situation, India is the fastest-growing economy. We have a big market, skilled manpower such as doctors and engineers. Now we are also increasing the skilled manpower," Gadkari said.
"Therefore, because of these investments majority of industries will be getting the benefit. And now we are trying our best to develop the MSMEs and their growth in India," he added.
In the present economic situation, around 30 per cent contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) comes from MSMEs, 48 per cent of exports are from the same sector. "Until now, the MSMEs have created over 11 crore jobs and so we need more FDIs to pump in liquidity into the market," he said further.
( With inputs from ANI )