Piyush Goyal calls for higher quality standards, innovation, and proactive industry role at Ficci AGM

There is a need to raise quality standards in the country and industry needs to tap into its technical committees and appoint representatives to ensure standards are maintained, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said at Ficci's 97th annual general meeting and annual convention.

"India will not only be a trusted partner but also a provider of quality goods. This will be a potent combination defining our journey towards a Viksit Bharat," Goyal said and asked industry leaders to play a more proactive role and work closely with the government to reduce the compliance burden and decriminalise laws detrimental to businesses.

He also said that 1 lakh crore allotted by the government under the newly operationalised Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) should be utilised by the industry to foster innovation and create a research-based ecosystem in the country.


At the same event, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Amardeep Singh Bhatia said the government will facilitate the setting up of more industrial parks in smaller cities and a framework for this should be ready by the year-end. "We are facilitating industrial parks in tier-2 and -3 cities for which we have had consultation with industry and framework will be ready this year, and would help industry take care of the land requirements at a reasonable cost as well as modern facilities akin to plug-and-play facilities to set up their units in a shorter time frame," he said.

Bhatia said the government is also fine tuning the FDl policy though around 90% of the sectors are on automatic route. "FDI doesn't come alone, it also comes with linkages with global value chains and access to markets. We are also pushing for deeptech startups to be facilitated by looking at their long-term financing needs," he said.

At present, there are 153,000 registered startups.

Noting that India lost a window of opportunity in 1980s and 1990s to manufacture, he said that 1.46 lakh crore of investment has come in the PLI sectors and 4 lakh crore of exports have taken place.