Indian reforms did miracles during the pandemic, says Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla

New Delhi: The Indian reform strategy during the last two years punctuated by pandemic effect has yielded positive outcomes, and the FDI inflows were the highest ever.

This was stated by Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla while addressing the Bharat Chamber of Commerce on ‘Post-Covid Economic Recovery’.

“The success of the reforms launched by the Government is evident in the fact that despite the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic, the FDI inflows into India during this period were the highest ever. India received over 81 billion in Foreign Direct Investment in the year 2020-21,” Mr Shringla said.

He also said: “India has today become home to one of the world’s largest start-up ecosystems and hosts close to 100 unicorns, 40 of which have reached this status in 2021 alone.”

“Supported by widespread vaccine coverage, gains from reforms and easing of regulations, robust export growth and ramped up capital spending, the Indian economy is expected to witness a GDP growth of over 8 per cent in 2022-23,” he said, adding this will be amongst the highest in large economies.

He further said the Government implemented Production Linked Incentive schemes worth USD 26 billion across 14 important sectors, including mobile and electronics, medical devices and pharma.

The Government is also supporting greater R&D in critical sectors such as Artificial Intelligence, Geospatial Systems and Drones, Semiconductors, Space Economy, Genomics and Pharmaceuticals and Green Energy, he added.

“India has also achieved the ambitious target set by our Prime Minister of USD 400 billion of goods exports in the year 2021-22. This represents an increase of around 37% over the previous year,” he said.

Mr Shingla further maintained that this figure for exports has been reached for the first time. “This is a key milestone in our journey towards an Atmanirbhar Bharat,” he said.

The Foreign Secretary said India has also placed a “renewed emphasis” on strengthening ties with neighbouring countries under its Neighbourhood First Policy.

“This applies not just to working in the political or strategic domains but also to deepening economic ties with our neighbours. With sustained focus on reducing barriers to trade and facilitating the seamless movement of goods and people, we have been able to see a significant enhancement in bilateral trade with some of our key partners in the neighbourhood,” he said.