Nirmala Sitharaman's Visit To US: What We Know So Far

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited US to attend the annual spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. During her visit, she also held a host of bilateral meetings and participated in multilateral meetings, and also interacted with several top officials of the Biden administration.

Top developments from Nirmala Sitharam's visit to US so far:

1. Strengthening of India-US relations: While speaking to reporters on the bilateral relationship, Nirmala Sitharaman said, "There is an understanding that India's relationship with the United States has actually moved forward. It's gotten deeper. There is no one questioning that."

2. Opportunities Post War: "I see more and more windows of opportunities opening, rather than (US) keeping an arm's distance saying you've calibrated your position on Russia doesn't seem like you are getting closer to us. No,” said Nirmala Sitharaman during an interaction with a group of Indian reporters in Washington DC at the conclusion of her trip. She also added that amidst a global shortage of food grains in the aftermath of the Ukrainian war, countries like India which have the potential to address this by exporting agricultural products, in particular cereals, are facing difficulties from the World Trade Organization.

"The opportunities that we have identified and have progressed in it...our export of food grains, particularly wheat. We are probably now tapping also for our manufacturing goods to move to destinations which are now suddenly found as their suppliers are in a situation they can't continue with uninterrupted supply,” she said. The war has revealed some realities to the world, she further added.

3. Indo-Pacific region: Sitharaman explained the developments in the Indo-Pacific region and the recently concluded 2+2 ministerial dialogue, which was topped off by a virtual meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden. "Post that my meetings here have gone fairly well and it doesn't seem to ranker people that you've balanced, you've calibrated your position,” she said. "Also the discussions which are going on the Framework for Indo Pacific Economic Relationship is also gaining quite a lot of traction and PM said he would consider it,” she said. She said India's relationship with the US is improving each day. 

4. Food grain situation: The United States has asked India to help out with the food grain situation right now, India's Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu noted during a news conference with Nirmala Sitharaman. "I was very positively inspired by the fact that in the plenary...response from the WTO was very positive. I hope we'll break that decade-long restriction which has held us back from using our agricultural products after taking care of the buffer we need for food security purposes. So that the farmers also can get a better return," Sitharaman said in response to a question. She said India has identified opportunities for the export of food grains and also manufacturing in the aftermath of the Ukrainian crisis.

5. WTO difficulties and agricultural production: Nirmala Sitharaman said, "In some of the interactions that I've had, in one of the sessions (that) impacted the plenary itself, I had voiced that countries like India which have potential for exporting agricultural produce, particularly cereals, have faced difficulties with the WTO.”

"Because of that, where the entire plenary was recognising that there's hunger and shortage of food grains all over the world, countries like India, which can probably supply are facing difficulties with WTO. In the plenary, DG WTO was also present, she was gracious enough to say addressing me...that (they) will address this issue, but we are looking at it positively and will hopefully be sorted,” she further added.

"So that was a very positive and very optimistic kind of immediate response from the DG. These are kind of opportunities that we're carving out of a challenging situation. India is trying to...find markets for its product and two; of meaningful assistance that where there is hunger, there are grains to go and nothing should stop them from going there,” she said.

6. Digitalisation: India made progress in digitalisation, referring to that she said there is now a realisation that the more digitalised a country is, financial inclusion and therefore benefit reaching the subjects is an easier task. 

“So India's achievement in terms of the digitisation that has taken place in the recent past and the benefits that India could derive because of the digitalisation during the pandemic and even now because of it, are being recognised,” she said. Several countries are coming to India to know more about it she added. 

7. Crypto: The biggest risk of cryptocurrency could be money laundering and its use in terror financing, reiterated Sitharaman. She added, "The regulation using technology is the only answer and that it has to be “adept” and “has to be not behind the curve.” The Finance Minister said, “We haven’t said this is a currency. We haven’t said this has an intrinsic value. Certain operations are taxable for the sovereign.” With regard to taxing income from crypto transactions, the Finance Minister said it was a means to check the source and trail but not to declare it legal, as reported by Business Today.

8. India’s startup ecosystem: The Finance Minister During her discussion with the IMF boss said that India has the largest startup ecosystem and fintech is the most preferred sector. She claimed that 1 in 4 startups belong to the fintech sector and that they are increasingly becoming unicorns, reported Business Today.

9. Inflation: The finance minister said that India crossed the upper limit of 6 per cent but “not so badly" when talking about inflation. India’s focus was to push capex without losing sight of moral obligation towards the underprivileged she added.

10. India’s coal dependence: According to media reports, Nirmala Sitharaman said in the discussion of India's coal dependence,  “So your dependence on coal will ideally be coming down and if we pegged the coming down to a certain period, now because of the transition gas becoming much more in price and availability becoming a bit difficult, the dependence on coal and the speed with which we wanted to get out of it will be challenged… so that’s what is the big problem before us.”  

(with inputs from PTI)