# FM Nirmala Sitharaman Says India IS The Place To Do Business: Look At Value Creation, Not Valuation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNiSW_oFBm0

[00:00] India's still the fastest growing major economy despite almost despite Ukraine despite Israel Iran despite all the tankers not reaching us on time despite oil and gas related problems despite fertilizers going up prices shooting up this up to the sky.
[00:23] We are still the fastest growing economy purely because of entrepreneurs like you and the citizens of the country.
[00:34] And we are projected to contribute 1/6 of the global growth over the coming years.
[00:40] It need not just be 1/6.
[00:43] And I can't see with a bright entrepreneurs before me, why can't it be 1/4?
[00:49] It's not a question.
[00:51] We can do it and I think it it has to come from you.
[00:57] We have we have the largest pool of the youngest workforce.
[01:00] anywhere in the world.
[01:03] More than 2.4 lakh DPIIT recognized startups created over 23 lakh jobs in this country.
[01:13] And that is the third largest ecosystem for startups.
[01:18] We also have 2,100 global capability centers.
[01:24] Only last week did we have a meet.
[01:27] Chandrajit was there.
[01:30] We were talking about more global capability centers going now to tier two and tier three cities.
[01:36] No more just in the metropolitan.
[01:39] And our digital public infrastructure has become an international benchmark.
[01:45] The UPI processes more than 20 billion transactions every month.
[01:53] Look at the activity.
[01:56] Transactions are happening and digital transactions alone
[02:03] Are 20 billion per month from us from India.
[02:10] So, the economic buses here.
[02:14] So, new opportunities are coming for ambitious Indians, entrepreneurial Indians.
[02:21] But, the barriers that once separated talent from opportunity are steadily diminishing.
[02:28] Geography, of course, still matters, but imagination matters far more.
[02:34] Imagination to exploit the available technology in your favor.
[02:44] I would like to say something which I'm sure will not receive claps, but that doesn't worry me.
[02:51] But, I think it's my duty to say it.
[02:54] And at least Chandrajit will agree with me, if not others.
[03:01] This generation
[03:03] Must overcome hesitation.
[03:07] Must overcome that little hesitation to take risk.
[03:14] And I say this because you're far more well endowed, well equipped.
[03:20] The world is lot more transparent and open.
[03:25] You can access information, and so you can access resources as well.
[03:32] India, at least, 30 years ago, at least 30 years ago, was not similarly placed.
[03:43] You had to go seek information.
[03:45] You had to meet people.
[03:49] You had to go places.
[03:53] You had to contact people.
[03:54] And that was not direct.
[03:57] You didn't even know that they existed.
[03:59] You had to find ways to say, "Oh, there is this person who will be the ultimate word on my business."
[04:03] And then made your links and went about meeting, went about talking, went about identifying opportunities.
[04:13] Today, it's all available on your phone.
[04:19] Time saved, money saved, multitude of advice.
[04:25] So, you already are well fitted.
[04:27] I'm not using just this one particular thing.
[04:30] I can tell you many more.
[04:32] India is electricity surplus.
[04:35] 30 years ago, you would search for that state which can give us some electricity.
[04:43] Or you will probably be buying gadgets to store captive plants within your units.
[04:51] None of that worries you today.
[04:54] A telephone connection.
[04:56] This generation will not believe it.
[05:00] You had to seek an MP's recommendation to get a BSNL line in your house.
[05:07] I'm not giving you stories of hardship.
[05:10] But these are realities which India has overcome in the last 20, 30 years.
[05:16] And today, everything is available at the press of a button.
[05:21] So, this generation I'm glad is better equipped, better positioned to do the leapfrog.
[05:30] But are you ready?
[05:33] And what is stopping you?
[05:35] Where is the hesitation coming from?
[05:38] There is a hesitation.
[05:40] You can't deny that.
[05:44] So, I want this entrepreneur gathering which is talking about entrepreneurship beyond the boundaries at a time when technology is at your call.
[06:01] To get over that hesitation, India is the place to be.
[06:06] India is the place to do business.
[06:10] And India is the place giving you a steady government, steady policy, certainty in taxation, and above all, an approachable government which responds to you.
[06:24] So, what else?
[06:26] I was recently in France.
[06:29] The entrepreneurs there met me and said they would want to link with India's MSMEs.
[06:36] The ambassador, Indian ambassador in France, told me that, "Ma'am, we'll have to devise a way in which our entrepreneurs and French entrepreneurs can work together."
[06:49] You should be approaching, you young entrepreneurs, this particular organization, the Wi-Fi, is it?
[06:59] Y I F I, Wi-Fi.
[07:02] Should I'm telling you, contact the Indian ambassador in France and say, "Get all the French entrepreneurs to come here.
[07:06] We are willing to meet them."
[07:10] You can say so many more things to them
[07:13] And of course hear them.
[07:21] The government can certainly be an enabler.
[07:25] In since 2014, and I'm grateful for the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, he has sought to redefine the role of government openly in conversation with you.
[07:37] From being a controller of our enterprises to becoming an enabler of enterprises.
[07:45] So, through various steps we've tried to keep that facilitators role active, create an ecosystem where ideas have a good chance of succeeding.
[07:55] We have worked to build that environment.
[07:59] And through greater formalization, about which many of us have spoken, the digitalization, I've just now mentioned about the UPI transactions.
[08:09] NPCI is taking all the QR codes from
[08:11] India also to many places.
[08:14] I feel that where you stand there you can pay through our QR code.
[08:19] So, greater formalization, simplifying procedures, digitalization, regulatory reform have all made it easier for business to start, operate, and expand.
[08:32] There is an unprecedented investment, particularly from the public, from the government sector, in roads and railways, ports, airports, logistics, and digital connectivity.
[08:46] And this has actually reduced distances distances.
[08:50] There are no borders between the states.
[08:53] The GST law has come.
[08:55] There is one nation, one tax.
[08:55] Improved competitiveness, connected enterprises to national and global markets.
[09:02] So, it is the time for businesses to come forward and take that risk to say, "I'm going to build I I see a market potential.
[09:11] There
[09:15] Are newer sectors for which government is giving the support, the sunrise sectors as we call them.
[09:22] Or look at the ways in which AI can be used to help dryland agriculture, processing of food.
[09:32] Now, from here straight I'm going to a place in Virudhunagar district, which is a aspirational district.
[09:39] You know what an aspirational district is?
[09:43] Hadn't met the benchmark of being among the average performance in the state level.
[09:50] At the national level, we've identified all these districts, 114 to start with.
[09:56] And called them not backward, called them aspirational.
[10:01] Made sure all the government schemes converge there, and they lifted them.
[10:05] Virudhunagar has done very well for it.
[10:08] Now, after 8 years of being an aspirational district, so is Ramanathapuram.
[10:12] The only two aspirational districts for Tamil Nadu.
[10:15] I'm going to Virudhunagar because I'm so happy to say this.
[10:22] SIDBI, the Small Industries Development Bank of India, has set up a unit.
[10:29] This is just one unit.
[10:31] They can't be setting up units themselves.
[10:33] They're only a uh you know, re-financier for banks to help MSMEs.
[10:42] But they've set up this unit in this aspirational district to process that famous Virudhunagar red chilies.
[10:52] Amazing work has been done in terms of the quality, in terms of the branding.
[10:58] They have started exporting as well.
[11:02] And in the process, the farmers of the area even have revived some of the traditional lost in the market varieties of rice.
[11:13] The red rice, the very nutrient-rich
[11:17] Uh varieties, mappillai samba, kavuni.
[11:22] All these rice have been revived, and they're beautifully packing it.
[11:25] I'm going to see that unit.
[11:28] So, this government bringing in support mechanism is for everybody, MSMEs and even the slightly bigger units.
[11:40] Uncertainty is a business risk.
[11:43] Preserving entrepreneurial confidence because the government is a enabler, I think is a very important message.
[11:52] Uh even because of the tariff-related problems last year, we extended a uh um emp uh emergency credit liquidity guarantee scheme.
[12:07] And this one is the fifth edition of the ECGLS.
[12:12] We launched it during COVID, had two, three, four.
[12:16] But the one which is launched now on the
[12:20] Uh, or in the context of the tariffs have also helped the ECGLS.
[12:26] Uh, helped the MSMEs.
[12:29] So with such schemes which are periodically designed and being brought before you, industry has nothing to worry.
[12:37] One to wonder if the government is going to be supportive or not.
[12:41] We are supportive, we are tailor making uh schemes to support industry.
[12:46] So I want you to come out and be ready to take up, widen your scope, contribute to the state in which you are present, make sure all of us put together take India to Viksit Bharat 2047.
[13:00] So I believe the most significant boundary today are no longer geographical.
[13:09] Technology has made markets accessible.
[13:13] Capital is willing to flow freely across borders with good where good ideas exist.
[13:21] And knowledge is more widely available now.
[13:25] Like the way I said earlier, it's on your phone.
[13:29] So, boundaries that remain are often those we impose for ourselves on ourselves.
[13:38] It is our own hesitation which is the boundary.
[13:40] So, entrepreneurship beyond boundary is entrepreneurship beyond your own hesitation.
[13:51] Fear of failure is not something which you can just defy today.
[13:57] You can one, you don't fail.
[13:59] Two, if you fail, you move forward.
[14:01] There is opportunity even beyond that.
[14:05] So, the temptation to think only in terms of valuation instead of value creation will have to be overcome.
[14:21] [bell]