FM asks industry to start taking risks, invest in capacity creation
Addressing a CII event, Nirmala Sitharaman said: “I appeal to industry not to further delay increasing capacity, not to further delay looking at areas to partner in technology.”
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said there are clear signs of an uptick in the economy and the industry should now start taking risks and invest in capacity creation that will help cut reliance on imports.
Addressing an industry event, she said: “I appeal to industry not to further delay increasing capacity, not to further delay looking at areas to partner in technology."
She also asked the industry to offer jobs to reduce income disparity and cut down on importing finished goods reduce and instead ramp up investment in manufacturing.
“At a time when India is looking at impetus to growth, I want Indian industry to be a lot more risk-taking and understand what India wants," Sitharaman said at CII Global Economic Policy Summit 2021.
India must become more self-reliant after the pandemic disrupted supply chains and showed the risks of depending on imports for essential goods, the finance minister said.
"Even as we want to be linked with the global value chains, we have to understand and take cognizance of the risks it has posed us," Nirmala Sitharaman said. She said India had to import protective equipment and testing kits during the initial phase of the pandemic.
She said India will need to build manufacturing centres at scale to reduce dependency in the future.
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