Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday outlined ambitious goals for India’s banking and pharmaceutical industries, calling for at least one Indian bank to enter the world’s top five and Indian pharmaceutical companies to secure positions among the five largest global players.
Speaking from the Red Fort on Independence Day, Modi said India’s economic growth should result in companies that achieve global recognition across major industries.
He said India’s banking industry was growing strongly and called for at least one Indian bank to rank among the five largest in the world.
Modi also urged Indian pharmaceutical companies to work towards becoming part of the global top five.
INDIAN COMPANIES MUST ACHIEVE GLOBAL SCALE
The Prime Minister’s remarks are part of a broader effort to develop Indian businesses capable of competing with the world’s largest corporations.
Modi has set a goal of having 50 Indian companies feature in the Fortune 500, saying India needs to set significantly larger ambitions as it works to expand its economic influence globally.
He said India’s capabilities were increasingly being recognised internationally and cited the country’s free trade agreements with 40 nations as evidence of its expanding global engagement.
The push comes as India seeks to strengthen domestic self-reliance while simultaneously expanding its presence in international markets.
BANKING, PHARMA AND THE NEXT PHASE
Modi said India’s banking sector was performing well and should now seek to establish a much stronger position on the global stage.
For the pharmaceutical sector, he called on Indian companies to enter the global top five, stressing the importance of scale and international competitiveness.
These objectives form part of Modi’s broader “Shakti ki Sapt Dhara” framework, which identifies seven areas that India needs to strengthen over the next five to seven years.
The areas include manufacturing, agriculture and food processing, technology and innovation, Gati-Shakti, defence, the green and blue economy, and India’s soft power.
FROM DOMESTIC CAPABILITY TO GLOBAL RECOGNITION
Modi said India should not isolate its market from the rest of the world and instead focus on manufacturing high-quality products capable of competing internationally.
He said the same principle should apply to India’s technology and digital capabilities. Modi called for Indian-developed digital public technologies to be adopted globally and said the country should aim to take Made-in-India 6G technology to international markets.
The Prime Minister also highlighted the expansion of India’s manufacturing sector over the past 12 years.
According to Modi, electronic manufacturing has increased nearly sevenfold, mobile phone production has grown 33 times and defence production has almost quadrupled during the period.
The broader goal, he said, is to leverage India’s manufacturing capabilities, technology, financial resources and human capital to create businesses capable of competing globally.
A FIVE-TO-SEVEN-YEAR CHALLENGE
Modi said India should accomplish within the next five to seven years what had remained unachieved over the previous five to seven decades.
His vision therefore extends beyond headline economic growth numbers to the international stature of Indian companies across sectors such as banking, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and technology.
The targets of 50 Indian companies entering the Fortune 500, an Indian bank reaching the global top five and Indian pharmaceutical companies joining the world’s five largest players highlight the scale of the economic ambitions Modi has set for India’s next phase of growth.
