Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal today expressed confidence that the structural reforms taken by the government in the last eight years will help India emerge among the top three developed economies in the world.

He was interacting on the occasion of the 27th edition of the Wharton India Economic Forum via VC. The theme of today’s event was ”India Leading Innovation in the age of Uncertainty”.

Speaking on the most impactful economic reforms that will pave the way for India’s growth story in coming years, Goyal said a lot of structural changes that have taken place in the last eight years have had a significant impact on the way the Indian economy is poised to take off.

 He spoke of GST as one of the important reforms and highlighted that despite the challenging global scenario recent GST collections have been very robust. He also mentioned that India is now a more honest, transparent economy and people are now getting used to paying their taxes.

He said the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is also an important reform measure that has resulted in robust banking systems in India. These banks have been able to provide the resources for the industry to grow. He also mentioned reforms such as privatisation,  digitization of the economy, particularly the financial sector, decriminalisation of laws and simplification of compliances to enable ease of doing business.

Responding to a question of which sectors are strategic priorities for the government, Goyal said that infrastructure, Semiconductors, and Domestic manufacturing are some of the priority sectors. He also pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus is on building a robust infrastructure in India. The private sector is also contributing to this endeavour.

Goyal said Semiconductor is another critical sector for the Indian economy. Another important area is domestic manufacturing, and the government has introduced PLI schemes to kickstart Indian manufacturing in over 14 sectors. The minister said the government is also encouraging the private sector/industry associations to decide the areas they need the support of the government.

Sharing his views on the current geopolitical environment in relation to tensions between Russia and the West, Goyal reiterated the PM’s belief that today’s era must not be an era of war. He further said India believes that dialogue and diplomacy are the only way forward to resolve the crisis and called for quickly resolving the conflict.

He also highlighted that PM Modi has had several conversations with world leaders on this issue. India played a critical role in trying to get a consensus at the G 20 meeting in Bali. He said that due to the PM’s intervention, world economies were able to come to an outcome at G-20 and hoped that it would set the path forward to finding solutions to the Russia-Ukraine war.