Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (local time) participated in a roundtable on “Investing in the India Decade” organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISP) on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

During the roundtable, FM Sitharaman underlined the reality of a global acknowledgement of “New India” and the renewed role India is poised to play in the global economic order, besides India as an investment destination going forward into “Amrit Kaal,” said the Ministry of Finance. She emphasised that despite the reality of resetting across the globe and the challenges posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic, India’s reform momentum remains unabated.

Ambassador of India to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu also participated in the roundtable.

“Investing in the India decade! Pleasure to participate with Finance Minister @nsitharaman for an Executive Roundtable with @USISPF & @ficci_india. Wide ranging discussion on the transformation of the Indian economy and the opportunities for companies,” he tweeted.

Sitharaman also elaborated on a host of structural and governance reforms that the Government of India laid through the Union Budget 2023-24 to ensure that the vision for “New India” during “Amrit Kaal” can be realistically achieved.

She highlighted that India is adapting at twice the rate at which technology and digitisation tools are being adopted by people around the world, effectively making their life far easier, said the Ministry of Finance.

The Finance Minister further informed the roundtable participants that local languages are onboarded in the digitisation drive as most of the Constitutional languages now have access to India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) platform, increasing reach, creating impact and exploring potential.

She reiterated that the Government is committed to pursuing the reform agenda for building a stronger and more dynamic India to provide plenty of opportunities for collaboration and investments, and welcomed the participants to join this incredible journey.

“There’s a lot of interest in India’s growth story,” said Subhrakant Panda, President, FICCI.

“Key takeaway was the positivity that the business has on what India is doing and the direction it is headed,” said Gaurav Verma, COO of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.

Sitharaman also visited the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The telescope is a NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics.

The Telescope is named after Dr Nancy Grace Roman, who was also the first female executive & the first Chief of Astronomy at NASA and is widely known as the ‘Mother of the Hubble Space Telescope’.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, in the development stage and scheduled to be launched by the mid-2020s, will have a panoramic view of the universe that is 100 times wider than the Hubble Space Telescope.

On June 26, 2020, GoI announced Space Sector Reforms – a major transformation of the Indian Space Sector with enhanced participation of private players in the Indian space programme and playing key roles in boosting India’s market share in the global space economy.

The Indian Govt recently approved the Indian Space Policy 2023, which aims to regulate and boost private sector participation and investments in the space sector, said the Ministry of Finance.

The opening up of the space sector for private participation, which was initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has led to the growth of startups in ISRO, with the number reaching 150 within three years.

“The establishment of IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre) was announced in June 2020 by Modi Govt to create an eco-system of industry, academia & start-ups and to attract a major share in the global space economy,” tweeted the ministry.

IN-SPACe facilitated India’s first private space mission- ‘Mission Prarambh’ which entailed the launch of the Vikram-S rocket in November 2022 by the startup Skyroot Aerospace.