NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called upon the US industries to take advantage of the recent reforms in India by investing in sectors as diverse as space and healthcare.

Addressing the India Ideas Summit hosted by the US-India Business Council via video conferencing, Modi said that now is the best time to invest in India.

He cited sectors such as agriculture, aviation, insurance and finance, defence and space, among others, which offer long-term sustainable returns and scale.

Exhorting investors, he said that tapping into the country’s food processing, aviation and power industry can be beneficial for them as key reforms have been carried out in these sectors.

Saying that during the last six years, India has made many efforts to make the economy more open and reform-oriented, Indian PM Modi added that reforms have ensured increased ‘Competitiveness’, enhanced ‘Transparency’, expanded ‘Digitization’, greater ‘Innovation’ and more ‘Policy stability’

“When the markets are open, when the opportunity is high and the options are many, can optimism be far behind! You can see the optimism when India rises in key business ratings. Particularly the Ease of Doing Business ratings of the World Bank,” he said.

He enticed the US industry by saying that special incentives are being provided to the investors.

On the FDI front, the Prime Minister revealed that India attracted $20 billion in foreign capital during April-July despite the COVID pandemic.

“Every year, we are reaching record highs in FDI. Each year is significantly higher than the earlier one. FDI inflows in India in 2019-20 were 74 billion dollars. This is an increase of 20 percent from the year before that,” he said.

“The rise of India means: a rise in trade opportunities with a nation that you can trust, a rise in global integration with increasing openness, a rise in your competitiveness with access to a market which offers scale,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)