Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu urged industry bodies to promote business values and accountabilityMumbai:Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said a steady growth rate of almost 7 per cent coupled with a series of reforms made India most favourite destination for investments in world.He said India would continue to be fastest growing major economy.
Quoting World Bank's latest forecast, he said GDP (gross domestic product) is expected to grow at 7.3 per cent this fiscal year and at 7.5 per cent in following two years."It is right time for foreign investors to tap huge potential offered by India in various sectors from real estate to healthcare," Mr Naidu said, addressing inaugural session of Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII)Partnership Summit on theme 'New India: Rising to Global Occasions'.The government's initiatives and reforms helped India achieve 11th rank in Global FDI confidence index 2018, Vice President's Secretariat said in a statement."The annual FDI inflows would rise to $75 billion over next five year and India with its growth momentum would soon become a $5 trillion economy," he said referring to a report by Swiss bank UBS.Mr Naidu said robustness of India's institutions, resilience of its policy frameworks, reforms initiated by government and responsiveness of industry bodies such as CII have insulated its economy from stagnation and helped in achieving dual distinction of being a stable democracy and one of fastest growing economies in world.Appreciating healthy competition among states to attract investors, Mr Naidu said public-private partnership model was way forward for effective implementation of infrastructure projects like construction of airports in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai.He observed that increasing internet penetration in rural India provides a great opportunity to improve rural India.
Connecting all gram panchayats with optical fibre network under BharatNet project by March 2019 would transform rural India, he said.Advising industry to promote innovation and research and development, he urged industry bodies like CII to promote business ethics, values, transparency and accountability.Mr Naidu called upon business community to share more of their wealth through Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives to address challenges like poverty, illiteracy, double burden of infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases and unemployment.Calling terrorism a global concern that demands global attention and cooperation, he said United Nations should conclude Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism at earliest."Terror is enemy of humanity, we must see to it that is eliminated earliest world community also should ensure that economic fugitives get extradited without delays," he said.