Picture : Twitter / ANI
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has encouraged Israeli businesses to focus more deeply on the opportunities and take advantage of India’s business-friendly policies, saying New Delhi regard them in many ways as perhaps “among our most trusted and innovative partners”.
Speaking at the India-Israel Business Roundtable soon after his arrival in Israel on his maiden visit, Jaishankar said there is an enormous effort of change happening in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office and people have heard bits and pieces of that change.
“If you were to connect all those dots, I think, you get a picture of an India that is moving towards acquiring those deeper strengths which will make it more competitive in terms of the world economy. And that to you is of interest because from those deeper strengths will come new opportunities and I’ll speak about some of them,” he told the gathering.
Very pleased to meet the Indian Jewish community in Israel.
Valued their manifold contribution to India-Israel ties.
Confident that they will bring us even closer together in the coming years. pic.twitter.com/au0gFEGjsT
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) October 17, 2021
“So you have today really a very energetic economy — the message that I would be giving to the counterparts of the Israeli government is you know ‘we regard you in many ways as perhaps among our most trusted and innovative partners’,” he said.
While this change has been going on for a few years and during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic when people have not been in touch physically, interestingly the change process has accelerated, he said.
“We have had some really big reforms, some of them might be of interest to you. One is called ‘production linked incentive’, which is to attract manufacturing to India from the birth so that anybody who is bringing in new production capacities and delivering on it is incentivised appropriately. Now this has covered 13 sectors so far. And many of them are exactly the sectors which some of you are interested in including batteries, electronics et al,” he said.
He said the new farm laws make agriculture much more sustainable which actually creates the basis for greater businesses in agriculture and greater employment in agriculture. “We certainly think those changes would encourage much more investment into agriculture and food production.” Later, he tweeted that a “productive meeting with Israeli chambers of commerce and the innovation ecosystem.” “Appreciate their visible enthusiasm for doing more partnerships with India. Many post-Covid priorities including digital,health,agriculture & green growth are natural areas for our collaboration,” he tweeted.
A productive meeting with Israeli chambers of commerce &the innovation ecosystem.
Appreciate their visible enthusiasm for doing more partnerships with India.
Many post-Covid priorities including digital,health,agriculture &green growth are natural areas for our collaboration. pic.twitter.com/1dX8UXwul1
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) October 17, 2021
