Washington | August 29, 2026 | INFRAINTEL Bureau
(The Hans India)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has invited international investors to establish manufacturing operations, technology centres and innovation facilities in India and use the country as a platform for global markets.
Addressing a business roundtable in Chicago, she presented India’s investment proposition as a combination of market scale, growth, talent, infrastructure, technology and continuing policy reform.
The discussion covered manufacturing, artificial intelligence and digital services, financial services, infrastructure, food processing, defence and advanced technologies. The minister urged companies to co-develop and co-produce rather than view India only as a consumer market.
She highlighted population-scale digital public infrastructure including Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, ONDC and India Stack, and identified opportunities in AI, engineering, analytics, semiconductors, electronics and higher-value global capability centres.
Sitharaman also promoted GIFT City, which she said had 1,250 registered entities as of June 2026, and pointed to opportunities in banking, fund management, reinsurance, aircraft and ship leasing and sustainable finance.
Other areas cited included freight corridors, railway modernisation, electrification, high-speed rail, food processing, cold chains, drones and autonomous systems. The Finance Minister is visiting the United States for meetings in Chicago, Asheville and New York.
Converting investor interest into capacity will depend on land and power availability, regulatory predictability, logistics costs, contract enforcement, skilled labour and depth of domestic supply chains. Progress should be measured through realised investment, local value addition, exports, technology ownership and durable employment rather than announcements alone.