Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is currently in Washington DC from April 10 to April 16 to attend bilateral meetings, investor sessions and other associated meetings. On Tuesday she spoke at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and addressed a range of issues
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged global investors to look at what is happening in India instead of listening to the perceptions of people who haven’t been to the country
Sitharaman said, “India needs to have resilient value chains come to India for which we came up with the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme so that those supply chains can thrive in domestic as well as international markets. We’ve incentivised production so that goods produced in India are consumed in India as well as exported to other countries”
She noted that India hopes to produce large bulk manufactured goods that can meet domestic as well as international demand. Goods largely consumed in India are going to be manufactured in India despite predatory pricing
Sitharaman said that there would be a lot of investment and manufacturing interest going back to China or restoring themselves in the country. She added that it would be unrealistic to think everything will come out of China
Nirmala Sitharaman said the India-UK free trade agreement negotiations are on track. She added free trade agreements are being signed at a much “faster” pace nowadays
Sitharaman said, “So across the board in India if violence is happening to make Muslims get affected, itself is a fallacy as a statement. To say it’s all the blame of the Government of India, I would want to say then, tell me, between 2014 and today, has the population dwindled? Have the deaths been disproportionately higher in one community?”
She said that Muslims are doing better in India as opposed to Pakistan. Sitharaman added Pakistan has more incidents of violence against Muhajirs, Shia and other communities.
A delegation of Sikh Americans told Nirmala Sitharaman that Khalistan movement is fizzling out due to the pro-Sikh steps taken by PM Narendra Modi