At Nasdaq, Piyush Goyal tells businesses that it is the 'right time to work with India'

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal spoke about India's "remarkable economic transformation" at a business roundtable organised at the American stock exchange Nasdaq in New York City on Tuesday morning. He reiterated the story of the investment potential of India at the event, organised and hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) at Times Square with a theme of "Friend-Shoring and the US-India Trade Partnership."

"This is the right time to work with India," Goyal told industry leaders. "India has grown from $400 billion to $3.5 trillion in the last 25 years." At the roundtable, representatives of both countries ensured secure and reliable access to critical technologies while discussing the future of India's semiconductor ecosystem.

The pandemic reinforced the "T"s — technology, trade, talent and trust — between the two countries, USIBC said.

Bilateral trade between India and the US increased to $119.5 billion in 2021-22 from $80.5 billion in 2020-21.

"Stronger India-US trade and surging crossflow of investments are adding new value and dynamism to our bilateral partnership," the minister tweeted about his meeting.

USIBC President Atul Keshap and USIBC Board Chair Edward Knight were among some of the other people present at the roundtable.

This roundtable comes at the head of the 13th US-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF) starting on Wednesday. Goyal and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will co-chair the forum.

The TPF has five focus groups — agriculture, investment, innovation and creativity (intellectual property rights), services and tariff and non-tariff barriers.

The 12th TPF meeting was held on November 23, 2021, after a gap of four years. The meeting was deferred in November last year due to local elections in both countries. In last year's meeting, India had asked for the restoration of GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) benefits to Indian exporters, on which the US side had stated that this could be considered.

On his official visit to Washington D.C. and New York City, Goyal also made a stop at Cornell University's Tata Innovation Center, where he lauded the group's use of its "cutting-edge technology" to enhance competitiveness and productivity between India and the US. He also met with Michael Miebach, the CEO of Mastercard, to discuss the deepening of India's capital markets and private equity landscape. Goyal also spoke about the expansion of investment in infra and renewables with Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of asset management group Blackstone.