The commitment from the Government of India is that we want Canadian investors to come and have greater engagement with India, she said.
“India is the economy in which people should take interest, because with that kind of population, with that kind of purchasing power, consumption and demand exist. India should be the place where all of us will have to really put interest, in the sense of investing both money and our attention,” the Finance Minister said during the Welcome Reception with prominent members of the Indian diaspora business community in Toronto, Canada.
“With 100 per cent foreign direct investment now permitted in insurance and India’s leadership in FinTech at scale, opportunities for capital are expanding rapidly. Emerging sectors such as semiconductors, magnets and rare earths offer significant potential for Canadian investors,” Sitharaman said.
India can also provide trusted and cost-effective supply-chain alternatives for global markets. I invite Canadian investors and rare earth operators to participate more actively in India’s growth story, she said.
India’s scheduled commercial banks are in the best of health now. There is a great lot of investment happening in the banking sector. India’s financial sector, the banking in particular, the NBFCs and their rapid growth is inviting a lot of international interest. GIFT City, has had several number of foreign banks come and do business there. More can come, Sitharaman said.
India is also creating new gateways for international capital. GIFT City, India’s International Financial Services Centre, is emerging as a global platform for international financial institutions, supported by a regulatory and tax framework designed specifically for cross-border financial activity, she pointed out.
“At the same time, India has progressively opened sectors such as insurance, asset management and pensions to greater foreign participation, while our capital markets have become deeper, more liquid and more sophisticated. For Canadian institutional investors, this creates opportunities not only to participate in India’s growth, but also to use India as a platform for wider regional and global financial activity,” Sitharaman said.
She also highlighted potential collaboration in financial infrastructure.
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), is the world’s largest real-time payments system by transaction volume and has become an important instrument of financial inclusion, efficiency and innovation. There are significant opportunities here for collaboration with Canadian banks, fintech companies and regulators – not only in payments, but in shaping the next generation of digital financial infrastructure, Sitharaman said.
