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She urged India Inc to focus not just on scale but also on building stronger, better-governed enterprises as the country works towards the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged India Inc to engage constructively with government, strengthen corporate governance and boost R&D to build globally competitive companies. (IMAGE: REUTERS)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday urged India Inc to not begin “every disagreement” in the form of “litigation”. Speaking at an AIMA event, the finance minister said corporates must avoid taking every disagreement to court and focus on strengthening corporate governance mechanisms.
She highlighted that trust “between businesses cannot be demanded; it has to be built through conduct on both sides”.
“Businesses must engage constructively with government and regulators. Legal recourse will always remain available, but every disagreement need not begin as litigation. There is considerable value in engaging early, placing evidence on the table, participating seriously in consultations and working towards solutions before differences become disputes,” she noted.
The finance minister highlighted that sound corporate governance is not simply a set of external codes to be adopted and that it also depends on the standards institutions set for themselves.
Sitharaman said businesses must also provide predictability, transparency and a willingness to listen, adding that a mature economy should be capable of disagreement without immediately becoming adversarial.
She urged India Inc to focus not just on scale but also on building stronger, more resilient and better-governed enterprises as the country works towards the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047.
Indian industry needs to build institutions that combine scale with durability, higher quality, better governance and deeper technological capabilities, she said.
At A Glance
Corporate disputes: Sitharaman said every disagreement between businesses and the government need not become litigation.
Governance: She urged India Inc to build stronger, more resilient and better-governed enterprises.
‘Imagined In India’: Sitharaman called for products to be conceived, designed and technologically developed in India, not merely manufactured here.
“India today has the scale of market, the entrepreneurial energy and the institutional capacity to aim much higher. Execution will determine how successfully we convert these strengths into lasting national capability,” she said.
The Finance Minister said the contribution of Indian management would be measured by the quality of enterprises and institutions being built today as the country moves towards Viksit Bharat by 2047.
She urged industry to focus on creating companies that are not merely bigger, but also better, competitive, innovative, trusted and resilient enough to contribute to India’s growth over the coming decades.
‘Made In India’ To ‘Imagined In India’
Highlighting that India’s next phase of growth must be built on quality, Sitharaman said corporates need to spend more on research and development (R&D), either in-house or through collaboration with academia.
She said greater R&D spending would help drive innovation and improve existing products, while also creating more intellectual property in and from India.
“Our ambition must move from ‘Made in India’ to ‘Imagined in India’ — products not only manufactured here, but conceived, designed and technologically developed here, and then taken to markets across the world,” she said.
India’s gross expenditure on R&D stands at 0.83% of GDP, far below the OECD average of 2.7%, China’s 2.6% and the US’ 3.5%, Sitharaman noted.
She said the figures reflected a persistent shortfall in private-sector R&D, with the domestic private sector accounting for just 36% of R&D spending, compared with more than 70% in leading advanced economies.
Building Better Management Capabilities
Sitharaman also underlined the need to strengthen management capabilities and called for short, practical courses for founders and early employees covering hiring, delegation, financial discipline, customer management, compliance and building systems.
She also called for practical programmes for family businesses covering succession planning, governance, professionalisation, conflict management and delegation.
The Finance Minister further urged corporate leaders to avoid designing products and services only for the formal urban elite.
“India’s consumption base rests on working families across agriculture, rural construction, transport, and informal enterprise. If corporate India pursues premiumisation for the urban tier alone, growth will lose its structural durability,” she said.
Sitharaman said the opportunity for private industry was also expanding as the government opens sectors such as space and nuclear energy to greater private participation.
More of India’s development needs can now be met through the market, she said, adding that industry must step forward to meet them.
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Ask News18Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged India Inc to avoid turning every disagreement into litigation, advising corporations to engage constructively with the government, participate seriously in consultations, and place evidence on the table early.
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Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a chief sub editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has …Read More
September 22, 2026, 8:33 PM IST
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