SME Times News Bureau | 12 Nov, 2021
Minister
for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal today said that COVID-19
highlighted that supply chains should not only be based on cost but also
on trust.
He opined that ensuring transparent, trustworthy and
resilient supply chains is at the core of trade revival and added that
India emerged as a source of resilience and a trusted partner during
COVID-19.
He
was delivering the “Keynote Address at Bank of America's flagship
Virtual Conference on the topic “Shifting supply chains globally: Could
Make in India see success?”, from New Delhi today.
The
Minister said that supply and demand disruption brought on by the
COVID-19 pandemic have forced manufacturers everywhere to reassess their
supply chains.
He added that India demonstrated its capacity and
capability to the entire world by not only meeting all our international
service commitments but also by becoming self-sufficient in production
of critical medical supplies (PPEs, testing, masks).
Referring
to India’s Pharmaceutical industry, Piyush Goyal said that we are
widely recognised as the “Pharmacy of the world” for providing medicines
and vaccines to most countries in the world. Speaking of India’s
success in implementing the largest vaccination drive in the world, the
Minister said that with a plan to manufacture 5 billion doses of vaccine
next year, India was aspiring to serve and secure all of the humanity.
Pointing
towards the rising economic indicators, Goyal said that India is
back in action and the decade is shaping up to be a growth decade, with
our exports surging and FDI in-flows and investments following a high
growth trajectory.
He said that trade must grow in a mutually beneficial
and collaborative way.
It
may be noted that our Merchandise exports in Apr-Oct 2021 was $ 232 bn
(+54% over Apr-Oct 20 & +25% over Apr-Oct 19) and total FDI during
the first 4 months of FY 21-22 is 62% more than that of the same period
in FY 20-21.
India now has 71 unicorns of which 67 were added since
2015.
Goyal said that the Naukri Jobspeak Index for Oct' 2021 reports a 43%
growth
in employment over the same month last year and manufacturing PMI rose
to 55.9 in October and service PMI reached a decade high of 58.4 in
October.
He opined that India has gained trust of global investors, with
its investor friendly policies, removal of redundant laws and approvals
through single window.
Underscoring
India’s strengths as a supply chain alternative, the Minister said that
India has a diverse business landscape, skilled workforce and
relatively low labour cost.
He spoke of India’s ambitious National
Infrastructure Pipeline project and said that the new PM GatiShakti
Master Plan would lend new life to India’s infrastructure planning and
eventually help in reducing logistics cost to 5%.
He
stressed that global sentiments are changing from ‘Why India’ to ‘Why
not India’ to now “Make in India for the world’ and serving the world
from India.
“India’s time has come”, he added. He invited the world to
‘Come to India, Invest in India and Make in India, for the world’, and
be a part of a large ecosystem of resilient supply chains.