Sitharaman invites French firms to partner in Viksit Bharat 2047, pitches investment opportunities

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

Addressing an India-France Business Roundtable in Paris on Thursday, she urged French investors to explore partnerships in 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.

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The Minister also highlighted India's clean energy transition, including the target of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, the National Green Hydrogen Mission and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, saying these initiatives offer significant investment opportunities in renewable energy, green hydrogen, battery storage, offshore wind and smart grids, the finance ministry said in a post on X.

Pitching India's financial ecosystem, Sitharaman said the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has emerged as a leading global financial hub, with over 1,200 registered entities as of June 2026, banking assets of USD 111 billion and cumulative banking transactions worth USD 176 billion.

She said opportunities are expanding across banking, fund management, leasing, Global Capability Centres (GCCs), reinsurance and sustainable finance.

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

Stressing that India-France bilateral trade has doubled in the past decade, she said the evolving global economic landscape, shaped by technological transformation, supply chain diversification, energy transition and geopolitical developments, presents new opportunities for stronger bilateral collaboration.

She said India and France are trusted partners in shaping the global artificial intelligence ecosystem and can expand cooperation in trusted AI, digital infrastructure and next-generation technologies.

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Sitharaman said India's digital economy, powered by Digital Public Infrastructure such as Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, ONDC and India Stack, accounts for nearly half of the world's real-time digital payments.

There are approximately 1,000 French companies operating in India.

During the roundtable, representatives of leading French financial institutions outlined their existing business and investment engagements in India and acknowledged the country's economic reforms over the past decade, including efforts to reduce compliance burdens and improve the ease of doing business.

They also shared suggestions for expanding long-term investment cooperation between the two countries.

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