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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025

 

--Sitharaman:See no reason for industry to hesitate in investment, expansion 
--CONTEXT: Finance Minister Sitharaman speaking at an event in Delhi 
--Sitharaman: Skilling key to take advantage of demographic dividend

 

NEW DELHI – The government has delivered on demand posed by industry over time and there is no reason for them to not ramp up investment and expand capacity, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Thursday. "I hope there is no more hesitation for industry to invest further. To expand capacities, produce more in India," Sitharaman said at Indian Foundation for Quality Management Symposium in Delhi. 

 

The government has been steadily taking steps to help the industry and met demands on ease of doing business, tax reforms, opening up foreign direct investment and forming policies conducive for industry, she said. "Today I have a basket of things on which the Government has delivered," she said urging industry to spell out what else is required by the government to do.

 

In the post-COVID era, the Modi government has pressed the accelerator hard on capital expenditure to drive economic growth. For 2025-26 (Apr-Mar), the government has set a capital expenditure target of INR 11.21 trillion against the revised Budget target of INR 10.18 trillion for FY25. In FY24, the government had spent INR 9.49 trillion on capital investments. In the first four months of this fiscal, capital expenditure is up 33% on year at INR 3.47 trillion.

While the government has continued to allocate funds for capital expenditure over the last few years, it has also urged the private sector to push the pedal on capacity building. In the maiden survey to gauge private sector capital expenditure released in April, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation estimated the private investment in FY26 to be 26% lower at INR 4.89 trillion. According to the survey, private companies spent INR 4.22 trillion on capital expenditure in FY24, INR 5.72 trillion in FY23, and INR 3.95 trillion in FY22.

 

 

Sitharaman said skilling of the youth was key for industry to hire adequately trained human resources and succeed. There is a need to bridge the human resources' insufficiencies, which are not adequately trained, she said. "So I would want private sector participation together with government in readying youth to be fit for quick and direct employment. So for skilling you need to partner with the government."

 

"We also have to periodically remind ourselves that we need to attend to the skilling requirement, else industry will be hard-pressed for human resource and will not get the advantage of the demographic dividend," she said.

 

She also asked the industry to continuously engage with the government instead of just communicating the requirements before the Budget every year. "We are all here to hear you and respond," she said.  End

 

Reported by Sagar Sen

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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