The Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal today said that COVID-19 highlighted that supply chains should not only be based on cost but also on trust. He opined that ensuring transparent, trustworthy and resilient supply chains is at the core of trade revival and added that India emerged as a source of resilience and a trusted partner during COVID-19. 

He was delivering the “Keynote Address at Bank of America's flagship Virtual Conference on the topic “Shifting supply chains globally: Could Make in India see success?”, from New Delhi today.

The Minister said that supply and demand disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced manufacturers everywhere to reassess their supply chains. He added that India demonstrated its capacity and capability to the entire world by not only meeting all our international service commitments but also by becoming self-sufficient in production of critical medical supplies (PPEs, testing, masks).

Referring to India’s Pharmaceutical industry, Shri Piyush Goyal said that we are widely recognised as the “Pharmacy of the world” for providing medicines and vaccines to most countries in the world. Speaking of India’s success in implementing the largest vaccination drive in the world, the Minister said that with a plan to manufacture 5 billion doses of vaccine next year, India was aspiring to serve and secure all of the humanity.

Pointing towards the rising economic indicators, Shri Goyal said that India is back in action and the decade is shaping up to be a growth decade, with our exports surging and FDI in-flows and investments following a high growth trajectory. He said that trade must grow in a mutually beneficial and collaborative way.

It may be noted that our Merchandise exports in Apr-Oct 2021 was $ 232 bn (+54% over Apr-Oct 20 & +25% over Apr-Oct 19) and total FDI during the first 4 months of FY 21-22 is 62% more than that of the same period in FY 20-21. India now has 71 unicorns of which 67 were added since 2015.

Shri Goyal said that the Naukri Jobspeak Index for Oct' 2021 reports a 43%

growth in employment over the same month last year and manufacturing PMI rose to 55.9 in October and service PMI reached a decade high of 58.4 in October. He opined that India has gained trust of global investors, with its investor friendly policies, removal of redundant laws and approvals through single window.

Underscoring India’s strengths as a supply chain alternative, the Minister said that India has a diverse business landscape, skilled workforce and relatively low labour cost. He spoke of India’s ambitious National Infrastructure Pipeline project and said that the new PM GatiShakti Master Plan would lend new life to India’s infrastructure planning and eventually help in reducing logistics cost to 5%.

He stressed that global sentiments are changing from ‘Why India’ to ‘Why not India’ to now “Make in India for the world’ and serving the world from India. “India’s time has come”, he added. He invited the world to ‘Come to India, Invest in India and Make in India, for the world’, and be a part of a large ecosystem of resilient supply chains. 

******

PK/MS