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Emphasising that India is positioned to serve as a primary engine of global growth through trade, manufacturing, and international alliances, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal noted that the future belongs to those who forge partnerships.
Addressing the Anand Rathi Conference, G 200 Summit 2026 via video call on Tuesday, the Minister stated that India is laying the foundation to become a developed nation by 2047, driven by a three-track agenda centred on macroeconomic stability, large-scale infrastructure expansion, and targeted social welfare delivery. "The future belongs to those who forge partnerships. Look at Prime Minister Modi. He's been able to create partnerships across the world. He's been able to build relationships with world leaders of the global South as much as the developed countries," Goyal said. He noted that international leaders share trust in the Prime Minister's leadership, which helped build consensus on over 50 tangible outcomes during high-level summits despite sharp global divisions and ongoing geopolitical conflict. Highlighting the country's domestic trajectory, the Minister said that entering the 80th year of independence places the economy at a critical juncture. "We are already powering almost one-fifth of global growth out of our country. We are the fastest-growing large economy, certainly, but we are also the land with a young population, aspirational, living in a digitised world with 1 billion Internet users, seamlessly connected to the world," Goyal said. He explained that the administration is committing Rs 12 lakh crore annually at the government level alongside private investments to build long-term logistics infrastructure, ranging from ports and expressways to inland waterways and railways. Turning to global commerce, the Minister highlighted the country's rapid expansion in bilateral and free trade agreements, which have substantially scaled up market reach for domestic industry. "All the FTAs until 2014 gave you access to economies with cumulative accounts for USD 10 trillion of GDP today. And these nine FTAs of the last four years, four and a half years, give you preferential access to economies in 38 countries with cumulative accounts for USD 60 trillion," Goyal said, adding that eight ongoing trade negotiations are set to add another USD 15 trillion in preferential market access. On the domestic regulatory landscape, Goyal underscored measures to enhance the ease of doing business, pointing to the competitive 25 per cent corporate tax rate and the anniversary of the revamped indirect tax regime. "Today is 22nd September. Some of you may recall it's exactly a year to GST 2.0. And one year later, with almost every item people use, 300-400 major items, saw significant reduction in GST. And GST collection has grown 15%," he stated. He further pointed out that legal reforms under the Jan Vishwas Act have decriminalised over a thousand commercial misdemeanours, moving away from criminal proceedings and court-determined fines toward administrative penalties for minor lapses that lack criminal intent. Addressing technological changes, Goyal affirmed that the government is actively adopting artificial intelligence for administrative efficiency, while focusing on creating employment in sectors that remain resilient against automation. (ANI)
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