The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal said while the Indian Diaspora in US has been very professional and innovative in their approach, they have simultaneously maintained a strong connect with Indian culture and value system, thus keeping the soul of India alive. He was speaking at the Luncheon Engagement with ‘Indian diaspora’ in San Francisco.

Referring to the unique positioning of the Indian Diaspora serving as the connect between India and abroad, Goyal called upon them to convey to the world the tremendous business opportunities that India, a country of 1.3 billion aspirational markets, offers. 

Highlighting that India has a vibrant Startup ecosystem, Goyal recalled that when Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi launched the ‘Startup India’ in 2016, it was a recognition of the growing importance of innovation, of young talent experimenting with new ideas, coming up with new solutions.

Observing that a lot of the startup ideas that are developed in India have the cosy comfort of a large domestic market and may not have engaged with the rest of the world as much as they could, Goyal emphasised the need to have more opportunities for our  Indian Startup ideas to reach out to the global market and added that there can be no better place than Silicon Valley to go global. 

Recognising the need for international engagement to expand, Goyal noted that no country in the world has become developed without significantly expanding engagement with the rest of the world. We need to engage with the world otherwise we will miss the bus, he added. 

The Minister said the Government is playing the role of facilitator between Indian startups and Investors based in the US and urged them to connect with each other to take this dialogue to a new level.  

Talking about the transformation that has taken place in the way of functioning of the Government of India, Goyal said we are trying to move away from red tapism, which existed in the past. Old ways of working are giving way to technology and transparency in a big way, bringing in honesty in the system, he added. The Government of India is trying to look at every single opportunity to make a conducive business environment. The approach of the government is based on more proactive engagement with people on the ground, bringing in a greater degree of policy certainty and predictability and making regulatory processes more aligned to what is happening in developed economies.