New Delhi, August 29, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
India offers global investors a compelling combination of scale, talent, infrastructure, technology and sustained reforms as businesses reassess their supply chains and capital allocation, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.
Addressing a high-level business roundtable in Chicago attended by leading investors and business leaders, Sitharaman highlighted India’s broad-based economic growth, reform momentum and expanding opportunities for long-term investment.
She urged global companies to look beyond India as a consumer market and consider the country as a platform to manufacture, innovate and build products and services for the world.
The Finance Minister said the theme “Manufacture in India — for India and for the world” reflected the growing opportunities for global businesses across manufacturing, artificial intelligence and digital technologies, financial services, infrastructure, food processing, defence and advanced technologies.
Outlining the theme “Why India, Why Now”, Sitharaman cited strong domestic demand, investment-led growth, macroeconomic resilience, a deep talent pool and rapidly expanding digital and physical infrastructure as key strengths of the Indian economy.
She said India’s investment proposition was not dependent on any single sector but was driven by the convergence of multiple structural strengths built over the past decade.
Highlighting digital technology and AI, Sitharaman pointed to India’s Digital Public Infrastructure, including Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, ONDC and India Stack, saying these platforms had been developed at population scale.
She said the next opportunity was to build higher-value businesses in areas such as AI, engineering, analytics, product development, semiconductors and electronics. India’s Global Capability Centres, she added, were increasingly developing into global innovation hubs.
Sitharaman also invited global financial institutions to explore opportunities at GIFT City, noting that the GIFT International Financial Services Centre had 1,250 registered entities as of June 2026.
She said GIFT IFSC was emerging as an international financial centre connecting global capital with Indian opportunities, with opportunities spanning banking, fund management, reinsurance, aircraft and ship leasing, sustainable finance and other cross-border services.
On manufacturing, Sitharaman said the reconfiguration of global supply chains presented a significant opportunity for India, backed by its large domestic market and increasingly competitive manufacturing capabilities.
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