NEW DELHI: The Commerce and Industry Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Thursday met industry representatives to discuss issues stifling growth and expressed concerns over the economy.
“We had detailed discussions on industry. We tried to understand the situation on investments and industry’s mind on what is happening in the Indian economy and what the states and the Centre can do to improve the situation,” Sitharaman told reporters.
Issues including impact of FTAs signed by India, ways to promote start-ups and boost economic growth were deliberated upon during the meeting, she added. Indian industry and exporters have time and again said these pacts have benefited the partner countries more. “We also had a detailed discussion on the industry, investment and understood the situation that is prevailing, the industry’s mind about what is happening in the Indian economy,” she said.
Industry chamber said in a statement that the issues discussed included “measures to further liberalise FDI regime, new initiatives that could be taken up under the Make in India programme and a strategy to promote start-ups.”
CII President designate Naushad Forbes, said that on start-ups there is a need to remove regulatory burden for such firms which are below a certain threshold limit, say less than `5 crore capital and make it more attractive.