Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Shaktikanta Das speaks in the course of the Kautilya Economic Conclave 2025, in New Delhi on October 3, 2025 | Photo Credit: PTI
Addressing an occasion in Pune on Saturday (October 11, 2025), he emphasised that India’s underlying precedence in free commerce settlement negotiations with the U.S. and different nations is to safe honest and balanced agreements in one of the best curiosity of the Indian individuals.
“India continues to show exceptional dynamism and resilience amid an unsure world atmosphere”, Mr. Das added.
Mr. Das delivered the eighty fifth Kale memorial lecture on “Indian Economy in a altering world order” in the course of the convocation at Pune-based Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
Noting that the worldwide financial system was experiencing a part of unprecedented uncertainty and elementary reset, Mr. Das mentioned the rules-based buying and selling framework, selling globalisation and free commerce for over eight many years, is dealing with a problem.
Mr. Das acknowledged that the state of affairs has modified from the times when it was thought-about that the world was flat and that it ought to turn out to be one market.
Cost competitiveness and the rules of comparative benefit throughout nations have been speculated to be the guiding rules, however a elementary change has crept in, he added.
“The state of affairs has modified basically. The world financial system and commerce have turn out to be significantly fragmented. Established guidelines are being more and more questioned whereas new norms are but to be firmly set in. The COVID pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia battle have accelerated the transfer towards self-reliance,” he mentioned.
The former governor of the RBI mentioned that the vulnerability in world provide chains has led many countries to rethink their exterior dependencies and provides increased significance to provide chain resilience over value effectivity.
“Strategic autonomy is now a prime precedence. This transformation can be evident within the rising affect of regional commerce agreements, which mirror a shift in direction of extra fragmented but sensible commerce alliances. The 12 months 2025, in a nutshell, is a pivotal 12 months by way of world financial trajectory.”
Guided by a decade of structural reforms and strategic world positioning underneath the imaginative and prescient of “aatmanirbhar” Bharat, the nation has efficiently weathered a number of world headwinds, Mr. Das added.
“The sturdy home demand, along with prudent macroeconomic and monetary sector insurance policies, has enabled the nation to resist many exterior shocks. India is now poised to contribute about one-fifth of the world’s GDP progress”, Mr. Das added.
He mentioned India has been actively reshaping its commerce engagements to align with the altering world order.
“India is a signatory to 14 free commerce agreements (FTAs) and 6 preferential commerce agreements (PTAs), with the U.Ok., Australia, and the UAE being the latest additions amongst FTAs,” he added.
Mr. Das mentioned members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), together with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, and India, have signed a complete Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement in March 2024.
“At current, India is in free commerce settlement negotiations with the U.S., the EU, Peru, Oman, and New Zealand, amongst a number of others. The underlying precedence of our commerce negotiations is to safe honest and balanced agreements in one of the best curiosity of our nation and folks,” he added.
Amid a altering world commerce, it is very important concentrate on the sturdy fundamentals that strengthen the Indian financial system and the structural reforms which have strengthened these fundamentals.
“These components have enabled India to navigate by the tumultuous world order,” he mentioned.
Published – October 11, 2025 06:14 pm IST
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