PM Modi addresses the Indian community in Berlin
After making a strong pitch for his Make in India agenda to German investors in Hannover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday evening told the Indian community in Berlin that the need of the hour is to make India a manufacturing hub.
"In the coming days, it is the need of the hour that India becomes a manufacturing hub. We can't let this opportunity go," PM Modi said at a community reception in Berlin hosted by the Indian Ambassador to Germany Vijay Gokhale.
He also said that making India a manufacturing hub is not just an economic goal for him but also a "self-respect movement". (Highlights of PM Modi's speech)
Inviting German companies to come to India and invest in various sectors like renewable energy, the PM said India is a destination of low-cost production. He asserted that on the issues of global warming and climate change India wants to show the way.
Hours earlier, at an Indo-German Business Summit - his last engagement in Hannover where he inaugurated the world's largest trade fair along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel -PM Modi had said "I am here to assure German companies that India is now a changed country."
PM Modi assured investors that "our regulatory regime is much more transparent, responsive and stable" and that "India has fast-tracked approvals in industry and infrastructure."
At the Hannover fair, the lion logo of PM Modi's Make in India campaign was a leitmotif - on a giant backdrop to the stage, mementos that the PM gave out, and the centrepiece of every speech he made, pitching India's potential as a manufacturing hub.
Meanwhile, at the community reception in Berlin, the
PM also met Surya Kumar Bose, the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Surya Kumar is said to have raised the issue of declassification of all secret files related to the freedom fighter amid a row over snooping on the leader's close relatives.
Germany is the PM's second stop on a three-nation tour. He arrived from France on Sunday and leaves today for Canada.