Sitharaman in Paris makes India's investment pitch

Paris: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday invited French businesses and investors to deepen engagement with India, highlighting opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), clean energy, healthcare, digital infrastructure and financial services during the India-France Business Roundtable in Paris.

In a post on X, the Ministry of Finance said Sitharaman, "setting the context of a rapidly evolving global economy shaped by technological transformation, supply chain diversification, energy transition and geopolitical developments," highlighted that the India-France Strategic Partnership "is uniquely positioned to drive the next phase of sustainable, resilient and innovation-led growth."

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The post added that the Finance Minister noted India and France are "trusted partners in shaping the global AI ecosystem," creating new opportunities for collaboration in trusted AI, digital infrastructure and next-generation technologies.

The Finance Minister highlighted the strong momentum in bilateral economic engagement, noting that India-France trade has doubled over the past decade while appreciating the presence of around 1,000 French companies operating in India.

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She said India is "a leading digital economy, powered by Digital Public Infrastructure including Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, ONDC and India Stack," accounting for "nearly half of the world's real-time digital payments."

Sitharaman invited investors to explore deeper collaboration across healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology by leveraging the two countries' complementary strengths in life sciences, vaccines, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), clinical research, precision medicine and digital health to build resilient healthcare value chains.She also said India's ambitious clean energy transition, including the target of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, the National Green Hydrogen Mission and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, is creating "substantial opportunities for investment in renewable energy, green hydrogen, battery storage, offshore wind and smart grids."

Highlighting the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), Sitharaman said it has emerged as a leading global financial hub with more than 1,200 registered entities as of June 2026, banking assets of USD 111 billion and cumulative banking transactions of USD 176 billion, with expanding opportunities across banking, fund management, leasing, Global Capability Centres, reinsurance and sustainable finance.

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She also highlighted the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), saying it offers long-term investment opportunities through its upcoming USD 3.5 billion Infrastructure Fund II and USD 1 billion Private Markets Fund II across infrastructure, digital infrastructure, green hydrogen, energy transition and other high-growth sectors.

The Finance Minister invited French businesses and investors to "partner with India in its journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047," while emphasising the need to strengthen the India-France Strategic Partnership and work towards shared prosperity for both countries.

According to the Ministry of Finance, participants from leading French financial institutions shared their current business and investment engagement in India, acknowledged India's decadal reforms and efforts to reduce the compliance burden and facilitate businesses, and offered suggestions for establishing deeper and more sustainable investment collaboration between the two countries.

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