Union Minister Piyush Goyal outlined India’s growth strategy, focusing on FTAs and global competitiveness, writes Richa Tyagi.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal called for innovation-led manufacturing, stronger industry-government collaboration and greater utilisation of India’s expanding network of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) while delivering the 22nd JRD Tata Memorial Lecture at a dinner reception hosted by ASSOCHAM President Nirmal K. Minda on 29 July 2026.
Goyal said the government is addressing the trust deficit between industry and government through reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business. He highlighted reduced compliance burdens, the decriminalisation of outdated legal provisions and the repeal of obsolete laws to encourage investment and entrepreneurship.
He said these reforms have been accompanied by technology-enabled public welfare initiatives, including Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), digital connectivity and expanded access to housing, electricity, healthcare, education and clean water.
Describing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a major structural reform, Goyal said it created a unified national market by replacing fragmented state-level taxation. Referring to Titan’s early growth, he said the earlier tax structure encouraged arbitrage and smuggling, while GST improved the business environment for domestic manufacturing.
On trade, Goyal said India’s recent FTAs have expanded preferential access to developed markets with a combined GDP of nearly USD 70 trillion, compared with around USD 10 trillion under agreements signed before 2014. He said the agreements provide greater export opportunities for Indian industry.
Goyal said India recorded around 7.7 per cent GDP growth in the previous financial year despite geopolitical conflicts, supply chain disruptions and trade uncertainties. He added that merchandise exports continued to grow and noted that the OECD, World Bank and IMF continue to project India as the fastest-growing large economy.
Referring to India’s startup ecosystem, Goyal said the country has the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem with increasing focus on deep technologies. He cited Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 mission as an example of advances in indigenous technology and engineering.
The Minister highlighted government initiatives including the Rs one lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund, the IndiaAI Mission, which has onboarded around 38,000 GPUs for startups and researchers, and the second phase of the India Semiconductor Mission to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
He said future manufacturing will require technology, automation, design, branding and packaging to produce globally competitive products. He also called for greater technology adoption among MSMEs to improve productivity and quality and encouraged businesses to use India’s FTAs to expand exports.
Concluding his address, Goyal urged industry to maintain high quality standards, reinvest in people and education, make greater use of FTAs to expand market access and support innovation as India works towards its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047.
