FM Sitharaman Promotes Made-In-India Potential For The 'World' Highlights Aadhaar, UPI, Digilocker, ONDC Initiatives

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is also serving as 32nd Minister of Corporate Affairs, addressed leading investors and business leaders in Chicago during a high-level Business Roundtable. She discussed opportunities across manufacturing, AI and digital, financial services, infrastructure, food processing, defence, and advanced technologies, ANI reported.

Suggesting that made-in-India was the central theme of the discussions, the Ministry of Finance on X stated,“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.”

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Promoting the proposition of manufacturing in India, both for domestic requirements and for global export markets, the finance minister asserted that India presents substantial scale alongside long-term operational depth that at a time when international corporations are reassessing global supply chains and capital allocation strategies

FM Sitharaman hails Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker initiatives

During her address to international investors, the finance minister said,“Digital Public Infrastructure--including Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, ONDC and India Stack--has created platforms at population scale.” She even underscored the expansion of GIFT IFSC as an international centre which connects global capital with domestic ventures.

With Global Capability Centres across the country developing into global innovation hubs, she unveiled expectations from the next phase - build higher-value operations in artificial intelligence, analytics, engineering, semiconductors, and electronics.

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She highlighted the combination of factors driving India's economic appeal, including strong domestic demand, investment-led expansion, macroeconomic resilience, a deep talent pool and expanding physical and digital infrastructure.

Inviting greater participation from global partners, she appealed through emphasis on convergence of scale, growth, talent, infrastructure, technology and sustained reform over the past decade. Encouraging firms to view India as an integrated manufacturing base, innovation centre, and destination for long-term capital investment, she sought co-development and co-production to build for global markets.

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On national infrastructure expansion, she highlighted growth of freight corridors, railway modernization and electrification, all of which continue to open avenues for institutional capital through platforms like the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. She even brought attention to policy measures such as the Production Linked Incentive scheme which enabled transition from basic assembly toward deeper component manufacturing, engineering, and advanced technologies.

Besides noting opportunities in agricultural processing, Sitharaman pointed out that India's investment proposition rest on several sectors, such as the convergence of scale, growth, talent, infrastructure, technology and sustained reform over the past decade.

(With ANI inputs)

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