India's Financial Potential Undervalued: Smriti Irani

Washington, Sep 17 (PTI) Observing that there is a lack of information about how much progress India has made, former Indian minister Smriti Irani on Monday said the financial prospects of the country have not been fully explored internationally.

"I don't think the financial prospects of our country are fully explored internationally. India as an economy is looked upon from the myopia of the lens, let's say that gets discussed at Davos or that gets discussed at the (World) bank, but operationally, we create opportunities in so many layers that are not visible," Irani said in response to a question during her appearance at the Observer Research Foundation America.

Irani, who is currently on an unofficial trip to the US, said there is a lack of information about how much India has progressed.

"There isn't much information about the climate action that has been undertaken by India. Similarly, let's say in precision manufacturing, in agro-based industry, the misconception is that our economy is open only for big business," she said.

"Currently, if you look at the small traders in our country, 90 percent of retail trade is conducted in the so-called unorganised sector. From a business perspective, small shops, often referred to as 'kirana dukaan' in Delhi or 'mom-and-pop' stores in the US, are generating a turnover of USD 844 billion," according to the former union minister.

Irani also highlighted India's achievement of administering 2.2 billion doses of vaccine in less than three months.

"They were surprised because they never, when I say they, I'm saying anybody outside of India, especially in the Western world, were shocked that we could get together an app and deliver not only doses, but 600,000 villages knew exactly what to do in a pandemic," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.

She said other nations were also surprised that India could become a major force in PPE suit manufacturing in just three months, becoming the world's second-largest supplier, competing with China, and breaking financial barriers in the supply chain.

“We also need to harness and keep harping about the fact that we in India have made a case for how supply chains globally will not be held hostage for political reasons. That is one message that India can time and again deliver to the world. Our stupendous success in how we handled COVID is a conversation that is not repeated often," Irani said.

"But when our backs were to the wall, we not only made our vaccine, we not only protected to the best of our ability our citizens, we have been since then giving food at the doorstep of 800 million Indians, which is not doable by any country in the world. So, I think that it is an imperative morally on us Indians, whenever we are outside our country, to keep talking about these issues, to say we got this much done," Irani said.

She added that India is not waiting for the world to act but has created solutions for the world to benefit from.