Abu Dhabi: In a closed-door meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several leading Indian businessmen from the UAE made a commitment towards investing in new India, sourcing human resources and products from Kashmir and making full use of the RuPay card in all their digital transactions.
In his interaction with the business community, Modi not only thanked the Indian expats for taking time out to meet him, and hailed them for their active participation in and massive contribution to India’s success.
Given the lower transactional costs, both users and merchants would prefer RuPay over the more expensive existing payment networks.
The two major talking points at the meeting were adoption of the digital payment platform RuPay across all transactions and investing in a big manner in the development of Jammu and Kashmir by recruiting human resources and importing material from there and showcasing the potential of Jammu and Kashmir to the entire world.
Modi said his government was sensitive to changing the narrative of India by inviting people to Make in India. “We have in a matter of a short time jumped 50 steps ahead in ‘Ease of doing business” rankings much to the surprise of the World Bank. We intend to come within the top 50 countries of the world soon,” he said, adding that he was also working towards improving the rankings on “Ease of living”.
If it [medical university] is established in Kashmir, that will produce a lot of jobs as well as provide health care in Kashmir.
On the RuPay platform, he said, “The RuPay has been greatly successful in Singapore and Bhutan and hopefully will be successful in the UAE and Bahrain. It will facilitate and streamline digital transactions for people of Indian origin living in these countries.” He added that this would also facilitate payments for the burgeoning middle class sector in India which was frequently travelling.
He drew the attention of the delegation to the massive investment opportunity that had opened up in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. “There is a great potential for rapid progress in these places that had stagnated for a long time. Our government will empower these places with special policies to make them prosperous and self-sufficient. We want to revive industries in these regions, revive tourism and make the ethos positive and welcoming. We are open to suggestions to ease bottlenecks and make changes for investors.”
A 500-bed multi-speciality hospital is slated to open in Varanasi soon and I intend to invest in a big way in J & K and Ladakh.
M.A. Yusuffali, chairman and managing director of the Lulu Group, said that he intended to implement digital transactions across all his 174 super and hypermarkets in 22 countries that housed 4,000 retailers. “For consumers who shop at the month-end when their savings have dwindled, the RuPay card will help them carry out digital transactions easily with their rupee savings.”
He added that the Lulu Group was sending a logistic and procurement team to J & K and Ladakh to hire staff and source products and raw material.
For consumers who shop … when their savings have dwindled, the RuPay card will help them carry out digital transactions easily with their rupee savings.
BR Shetty, chairman and founder of NMC Healthcare, said his group which had 200 facilities including 187 hospitals and was listed in the London Stock Exchange had begun investing in the health care sector in India. “A 500-bed multi-speciality hospital is slated to open in Varanasi soon and I intend to invest in a big way in J & K and Ladakh. Our investments will be in health care and education, agro products, tourism and a film city,” he said, pledging a sum of $1 billion to the union territory and an additional $5 million to the New India Development Fund.
Dr Azad Moopen, founder chairman and managing director, Aster DM Healthcare, talked about the requirement of a medical university in Kashmir, which can be an NRI medical university. “If it is established in Kashmir, that will produce a lot of jobs as well as provide health care in Kashmir,” he said, adding a promise from his group to absorb people from Kashmir and use RuPay in Aster establishments.
Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, chairman & managing director VPS Healthcare, who also promised to accept RuPay in his group, said: “Given the lower transactional costs, both users and merchants would prefer RuPay over the more expensive existing payment networks.”
— With inputs from Sajila Saseendran, Senior Reporter
