FM Sitharaman woos foreign investments

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman met investors and business leaders in Chicago on Friday and pitched for investments into India, citing broad-based growth, reform momentum and expanding opportunities for long-term investment.

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A key focus of the meeting was “Manufacture in India — for India and for the world”, with opportunities across manufacturing, AI & digital, financial services, infrastructure, food processing, defence and advanced technologies, Union Finance Ministry said in a post on X.

“As global companies reassess supply chains and capital allocation, India offers not only scale as a market, but increasing depth as a long-term investment and operating platform,” Sitharaman said.

She also highlighted combination of strong domestic demand, investment-led growth, macroeconomic resilience, a deep talent pool and rapidly expanding digital and physical infrastructure.

“With global supply chains being reconfigured, India offers a compelling combination of a large domestic market and globally competitive manufacturing capabilities. The focus is moving beyond assembly towards deeper component manufacturing, engineering and advanced technologies, supported by targeted policy measures including PLI,” Sitharaman said.

India’s Digital Public Infrastructure—including Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, ONDC and India Stack—has created platforms at population scale. The next opportunity is to build higher-value businesses in AI, engineering, analytics, product development, semiconductors and electronics, with India’s Global Capability Centres increasingly becoming global innovation hubs, she said.

Sitharaman invited global institutions to explore GIFT City as a gateway to India’s financial ecosystem.

GIFT IFSC is emerging as an international financial centre connecting global capital with Indian opportunities. With 1,250 registered entities as of June 2026, it offers opportunities across banking, fund management, reinsurance, aircraft and ship leasing, sustainable finance and other cross-border services, she said.

India’s infrastructure build-out—from dedicated freight corridors and railway modernisation to electrification and high-speed rail—offers opportunities across engineering, technology, materials, specialised equipment and long-term institutional capital. NIIF provides a commercially driven platform for global investors to participate in the opportunity, the Finance Ministry said.

India’s agricultural base, rising incomes and changing consumption patterns are creating opportunities across food processing, automation, packaging, logistics and cold chains, with potential to build businesses serving both Indian and global markets, Sitharaman said.

India’s investment proposition rests not on any single sector, but on the convergence of scale, growth, talent, infrastructure, technology and sustained reform over the past decade. The policy environment is increasingly focused on enabling businesses to invest, manufacture, innovate and expand, she said.

Sitharaman invited global partners to co-develop, co-produce and build for global markets, and to not merely consider India as a market to serve, but as a platform from which to build for the world — whether as a manufacturing base, technology and innovation centre, consumer market or destination for long-term infrastructure investment, leveraging India’s engineering talent, manufacturing scale and technology ecosystem.

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