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India can provide High Quality Services at an Affordable Cost: Nirmala Sitharaman
Apr 25, 2016

 “The success of the second edition of the Global Exhibition on Services has given us confidence that India is emerging as a hub for global services,” said Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (I/C) and chief guest at the valedictory session of the Global Exhibition on Services (GES). The exhibition was organized by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Services Export Promotion Council at the India Expo Center and Mart in Greater Noida from 20-23 April 2016.

She further elaborated that the challenge is to provide high quality services at an affordable price. “Value for money,” she said “is a very important criterion for the services sector.” Giving the example of the Mars mission which was launched at a very low cost, she said that Indian service providers can deliver on costing, quality and standards. Branding does not mean expensive pricing, she said.

She said that the Indian healthcare sector was ready to take on the global challenge and she was pleased that the GES had enabled linkages between healthcare service providers in India and buyers from Africa. She also mentioned Chinese interest in collaborating with Indian television and film content providers. She said that the government recognizes services as very important for India and is keen to skill people to international standards.

 Commerce Secretary Ms Rita Teaotia expressed her appreciation for all the activities, energy and action at the GES. She said that the Department of Commerce was taking various steps to encourage the services sector and increase its share in global trade. These include trade policy measures, addressing issues of competitiveness and providing more accurate data on services. She was keen to see the SAARC countries work together and put together a plan for providing high quality services in areas such as legal, educational, architecture and logistics.

In his welcome remarks, Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII the GES had been successful in presenting a heterogeneous mix of services on the same platform. He also mentioned the synergy between the services sectors and Make in India campaign. He said that the GES had attracted more than 20,000 business visitors, 450 exhibitors including 25 from foreign countries and 500 overseas delegates. There were 3000 B2B meetings and 20 odd conferences covering 17 sectors. He said the success of the GES was also reflected in the large number of individual meetings between businesses, between governments and between government and business.

Mr. Sudhanshu Pandey, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, further elaborated on the focus areas of the GES. Conferences were held and issues discussed across areas such as media and entertainment, e-commerce, wellness, healthcare, tourism, IT and telecom. The role of state governments in providing the right infrastructure and right regulatory environment was also discussed, he said. He hoped that the participation of states would increase from eight this year to 20 in the coming year. The dates for the coming year’s GES had been fixed at 19-21 April 2017.

In his concluding remarks, Mr Malvinder M Singh, Chairman, CII Services Council said that the Hindi word for services is ‘Seva’ which has a special meaning for him when expanded – Speed, Efficiency, Value and Advantage India. He said that the Indian healthcare sector is able to provide the best services in the world at 1/10th of global prices. Further, he said that the word medical tourism should be replaced by medical value travel to indicate the Indian price point. He said he was energised by the dialogue generated at the GES.

Greater Noida

23 April, 2016

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