Mumbai: Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday called investor fears over the future of IT companies as “ridiculous”, underlining the important role that the sector will play to make artificial intelligence flourish.
His statement comes at a time when IT companies shares have taken a beating over the past fortnight, especially after the launch of newer AI platforms by US-based companies like Anthropic.
Such developments have cast a shadow on the relevance of the nearly USD 300 billion sector that directly employs 50 lakh people.
Speaking at the GEC event here, Goyal also said that the interest of the dairy sector and small businesses have been protected in the trade deal with the US, and that the full text of the agreement has not been made public to “pre-empt” the final text.
On the investors’ jitters about IT companies he said: “Of late, I’m seeing in the stock market some discontentment about the future of the IT industry. I find it quite ridiculous. Because these are the companies who will be required for artificial intelligence to flourish.”
Goyal gave the example of cybersecurity and data scrubbing, underlining that IT companies will have an important task to perform in both of them.
On trade deals, Goyal said India has signed nine agreements with various countries or blocs like the European Union over the last few years, if one were to include the US agreement.
“We have finalised all the sensitivities that need to be protected. Our farmers are fully protected. Our MSMEs are fully protected, not a single farmer will have cause for complaint once the full text is out,” Goyal assured.
All the aspects in a deal get discussed with ministries concerned, the private sector and all stakeholders, due to which there have not been any protest against the agreements, he said.
Allaying public concerns regarding the deals, he said, “We haven’t opened dairy for any country whatsoever. Countries like Australia, New Zealand, the US or Europe have never opened or done a free trade agreement without dairy as an integral part of the agreement. But they have accepted to do it with India.”
Goyal said this is possible because of the element of trust which is built with any partner on the back of honesty, and explained that while India negotiates from a position of strength, it is also not apologetic about its challenges. The pacts with the US and EU will “help increase the flow of venture capital into the country”.