Piyush Goyal To Visit San Francisco Later This Month

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said he will visit San Francisco later this month with a view to discussing ways to further strengthen economic ties with the US.

The minister is also scheduled to participate in the meeting of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) on November 13-14 at San Francisco.

IPEF, a group of 14 countries, was launched jointly by the US and other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23 in Tokyo. These nations represent 40 per cent of global GDP and 28 per cent of global goods and services trade.

“I will be in San Francisco later this month where the US and India are also working together to have an innovation handshake …They want to work with all the young talent that we have in India,” Goyal said at a function in Gurugram.

IPEF is structured around four pillars relating to trade, supply chains, clean economy, and fair economy (issues like tax and anti-corruption). India has joined the three pillars except the trade part.

The member countries are holding negotiations to sign separate agreements on these subjects. Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the US and Vietnam are members of the bloc.

Talking about startups, Goyal said the government is taking steps to strengthen the startup ecosystem in India.

The number of government-registered startups has increased to about 1.15 lakh at present from 450 in 2016.

These startups are eligible for certain fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.

The minister also said that artificial intelligence (AI) can be a game changer in the fight against poverty and taking services to the remotest part of the country.

“AI is opening up new opportunities and India can take a quantum leap in that,” he added.

The minister said that the government is coming out with a new innovation fund, and guidelines for the same will be released soon.