Highlights of PM Modi- Merkel meeting at Business Forum in Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Oct 6: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday discussed the role of technology and innovation in manufacturing and IT services.

Here are some important things PM Modi said in the meet

• There is tremendous potential in India-Germany economic collaboration.

• At a time of global slowdown, India represents a bright spot for investments.

• With a very open and global mindset, we have worked aggressively in the last fifteen months to make India an easy place to do business.

• We are keen to build futuristic physical and social infrastructure.

• Germany ranks 7th among foreign investor countries in India.

• About 600 Indo-German Joint ventures are already operating in India. However, as of now, our economic partnership remains below our full potential.

• We are particularly keen to develop the sectors where Germany is strong. We are working hard to create conducive conditions for the same.

• In addition, we are setting up an India Investment and Infrastructure Fund.
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• We have targeted an annual flow of Rs 20,000 Crore (which is approximately 2.7 billion euros) into this fund from our own resources.

• We are committed to creating favorable conditions for business and industry because we believe that they are necessary for improving the lives of ordinary citizens in India.

• We have also come up with the mechanism of Tax Free Infrastructure Bonds for projects in rail, road and irrigation sectors.

• There were a number of regulatory and taxation issues which were adversely impacting on the sentiments of foreign investors.

• We have taken very decisive steps to remove a number of long pending concerns of investors.

• We need to provide a huge push to manufacturing which has stagnated at around 16% of the GDP for several decades in India.
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• This percentage must reach around 25 in the short and medium term. With this in view, we have launched the "Make in India" initiative.