S Jaishankar said there is an enormous effort of change happening in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office and people have heard bits and pieces of that change.
Describing Israel as one of India's "most trusted and innovative partners", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday urged Israeli business, including from the defence sector, to invest in the country and take advantage of its business-friendly policies.
Speaking at the India-Israel Business Roundtable soon after his arrival in Israel on his maiden visit, Jaishankar said there is an enormous effort of change happening in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office and people have heard bits and pieces of that change.
"If you were to connect all those dots, I think, you get a picture of an India that is moving towards acquiring those deeper strengths which will make it more competitive in terms of the world economy. And that to you is of interest because from those deeper strengths will come new opportunities and I'll speak about some of them,” he told the gathering.
While this change has been going on for a few years and during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic when people have not been in touch physically, interestingly the change process has accelerated, he said.
"So I would urge anyone who has any interest in defence to either directly or indirectly in terms of a platform or in terms of an ancillary or as a vendor to look at those possibilities.
"So you have today really a very energetic economy -- the message that I would be giving to the counterparts of the Israeli government is you know 'we regard you in many ways as perhaps among our most trusted and innovative partners'," he said.
"We have had some really big reforms, some of them might be of interest to you. One is called 'production linked incentive', which is to attract manufacturing to India from birth so that anybody who is bringing in new production capacities and delivering on it is incentivised appropriately. Now, this has covered 13 sectors so far. And many of them are exactly the sectors which some of you are interested in including batteries, electronics et al,” he said.
(With PTI Inputs)