UNION Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the recently announced India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor is a strategic and economic game changer for India and others. While presenting the Interim Budget 2024-25 in Parliament today, the Minister quoted the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi saying that the corridor "will become the basis of world trade for hundreds of years to come, and history will remember that this corridor was initiated on Indian soil". 

Highlighting the global context, Nirmala Sitharaman said that geopolitically, global affairs are becoming more complex and challenging with wars and conflicts. She noted that globalization is being redefined with reshoring and friend-shoring, disruption and fragmentation of supply chains, and competition for critical minerals and technologies. A new world order is emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic, she added.

The Minister stated that India assumed G20 Presidency during very difficult times for the world. She highlighted that the global economy was going through high inflation, high interest rates, low growth, very high public debt, low trade growth, and climate challenges. She said that the pandemic had led to a crisis of food, fertilizer, fuel and finances for the world, while India successfully navigated its way. Sitharaman said that the country showed the way forward and built consensus on solutions for those global problems.

Promoting Investments

The Minister said that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow during 2014-23 was USD 596 billion marking a golden era. She highlighted that it is twice the inflow during 2005-14. While presenting the Interim Budget 2024-25, the Minister further said, "For encouraging sustained foreign investment, we are negotiating bilateral investment treaties with our foreign partners, in the spirit of ‘first develop India'."