Bold reforms, enhanced capacities key to growth over next two decades: FM

India’s quest for sustained growth over the next two decades hinges on a new paradigm, driven by bold reforms, enhanced domestic capabilities and strategic institutional collaborations suited for the evolving global landscape, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

The last two Union Budgets have laid the groundwork for this transformation, with a clear multi-sectoral policy agenda, she said, while speaking at Hoover Institution at Stanford University California.

In the last decade, she said the government has undertaken structural reforms, rationalising over 20,000 compliances, decriminalising business laws and digitising public services to reduce friction.

She added a significant thrust on infrastructure development has also created a strong foundation for manufacturing-led growth by bolstering investor confidence over the last 10 years.

This has been enabled by a more than four-fold increase in Centre’s capital expenditure between 2017-18 and the 2025-26 Budget, she said.

“Over the next two decades, sustaining India’s growth momentum calls for a fresh approach grounded in bold reforms, stronger domestic capacities, renewed institutional partnerships and adaptive strategies suited for the evolving global landscape,” she said.

‘Int’l ITs should Make in India’

Sitharaman also met several IT industry leaders and invited them to explore opportunities for technical collaboration and investment.

During a bilateral meeting with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and his team, Sitharaman encouraged them to explore local linkages in India for territorial collaboration and to develop tech for India and the world market under the ‘Make In India’ initiative. Kurian appreciated India’s AI Mission.