India has stopped working in a routine, bureaucratic manner: PM in Thailand
Bangkok: India has stopped working in a routine, bureaucratic manner as the country is undergoing transformative changes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a group of influential business leaders while hard-selling his government's economic reform initiatives.
Inviting Thai business leaders to invest in India, the prime minister particularly talked about initiatives to reform India's tax regime and said his government is now starting face-less tax assessment so that there is no scope for discretion or harassment.
The prime minister was speaking at an event to mark golden jubilee of the Aditya Birla Group's presence in Thailand.
In today's India, the contribution of the hard working tax payer is cherished. One area where we have done significant work is taxation. I am happy that India is one of the most people friendly tax regimes. We are committed to further improving it even more, he said.
The prime minister said it was the best time to be in India and that many things such as foreign direct investment, ease of doing business, ease of living and productivity are rising while tax rates, red tapism, corruption, cronyism are on a decline.
All of what I have said just now makes India one of the world's most attractive economies for investment. India received 286 billion US dollar FDI in the last five years. This is almost half of the total FDI in India in the last twenty years, Modi said.
The prime minister also referred to India's dream to become a five trillion dollar economy.
When my government took over in 2014, India's GDP was about 2 trillion dollars. In 65 years, 2 trillion. But in just 5 years, we increased it to nearly 3 trillion dollars, he said.
The prime minister arrived here on a three-day visit on Saturday to attend ASEAN-India, the East Asia and the RCEP summits.
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Finland's President Stubb kicks off 4-day visit to India; trade, innovation top agenda
New Delhi (PTI): Finnish President Alexander Stubb began a four-day visit to India on Wednesday to bolster bilateral cooperation across a wide spectrum of areas, including trade, investment and critical technology.
Stubb will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday following which the two sides are expected to firm up a number of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to boost cooperation in a number of sectors.
The crisis in West Asia is likely to figure prominently in the meeting.
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"The visit will further strengthen the relations between Finland and India, including in the area of trade," Stubb said before leaving for New Delhi.
The Finnish president will grace as the chief guest at the inaugural session of the Raisina Dialogue on Thursday evening.
Stubb was accorded a warm welcome at the airport by Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh.
"India and Finland share a warm and friendly relationship rooted in shared democratic values. President Stubb's visit will impart further energy to India-Finland relations," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on social media.
The Finnish president is accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising ministers, senior officials and business leaders.
Stubb's visit to India comes weeks after Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo travelled to New Delhi for the AI Impact Summit.
The Finnish president will also meet President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President C P Radhakrishnan.
Stubb will travel to Mumbai on Friday where he is scheduled to meet several business leaders. The Finnish leader will conclude his visit on Saturday.
