Sustaining India’s growth requires bold reforms, Budgets have laid groundwork for this transformation: FM Sitharaman | India-Business News

India’s long term growth over the next two decades will rely on a new approach, rooted in bold reforms, better domestic capabilities, and strategic institutional partnerships designed for the growing global landscape, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said at Stanford University California.
FM Sitharaman highlighted the various projects undertaken by the Indian government in the last couple of years which has helped in the creation of a strong foundation for a manufacturing-oriented growth in the nation. She also spoke about the strength of the US in the field of start-ups.
This has been enabled by a more than four-fold increase in the union government’s capital expenditure between 2017-18 and the 2025-26 Budget, she said in reference to India’s growing economy.
“Our experience with implementing the Business Reform Action Plan by different state governments has demonstrated that deregulation is a powerful catalyst for industrial growth,” Sitharaman said.
Over the past decade, the government has implemented wide-ranging structural reforms, including the rationalisation of over 20,000 compliance requirements, decriminalisation of business laws, and the digitisation of public services—all aimed at reducing friction for businesses, she said.
She noted that India’s progress, despite global disruptions such as the pandemic and banking crises, reflects its sound macroeconomic fundamentals and ongoing reform momentum. This has helped India ascend from being the world’s tenth-largest economy to the fifth-largest.
India’s ambition to become a developed nation by 2047, marking 100 years of independence, is not just an aspiration—it is a collective national mission, she said.
Quoting a report by Indiaspora and BCG, Sitharaman said that Indian first-generation immigrants founded 72 unicorns between 2018 and 2023, with a collective valuation of USD 195 billion and a workforce of nearly 55,000.
She also noted the significant presence of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India—over 65% of which are headquartered in the United States—offering advanced services in R&D, management consulting, and auditing.
India’s achievements in building Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) have also drawn global praise. Over a billion digital identities have been created, enabling streamlined access to financial services and swift government relief disbursals during the pandemic.
“DPI also was useful in administering vaccines during Covid-19 pandemic. In my interactions with the G20, the World Bank or the IMF, this singular population-scale achievement of India is repeatedly lauded,” she said.
Sitharaman emphasized the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to India’s manufacturing ecosystem. To support SMEs, the government has rolled out several initiatives—including easier credit access, updated classification norms, quicker payments from large buyers, and reduced compliance burdens.
The Open Network for Digital Commerce, launched in April 2022, has onboarded over 764,000 vendors across 616 cities. The next focus, she said, will be on reducing regulatory friction, digitising approval processes, and integrating MSMEs into global value chains—with a special effort on empowering women-led and rural enterprises.
On women’s economic participation, Sitharaman highlighted several initiatives that were undertaken- extended maternity leave to six months, higher interest rates on women’s bank deposits (7.5%), tax concessions for property registered in women’s names, and nutritional support for mothers through the Poshan Scheme.