By Shailesh Yadav

New Delhi [India], December 3 (ANI): As Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit India for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit on December 4-5, Indian industry leaders are looking to deepen bilateral economic partnerships while strengthening the countries' longstanding strategic relationship.

Anant Goenka, Vice Chairman of RPG Group and President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), emphasised the enduring nature of Indo-Russian ties in an exclusive interview. He highlighted that the relationship extends beyond defence cooperation to encompass broader industrial collaboration.

'Russia has been a time-tested partner for India with long relationships over many years,' Goenka stated.

'We are closely tied in terms of defence relationships, and we hope that continues to strengthen. We will also look at further business relationships between the industry in Russia and in India.'

President Putin's visit comes at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is expected to further cement bilateral cooperation across multiple sectors.

Turning to domestic economic matters, Goenka expressed optimism about the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee meeting, calling for a 25-basis-point reduction in interest rates.

'The macros of India are very strong at this point of time. Inflation rates are lower than expected levels. Corporate balance sheets are strong. Growth is also fairly positive,' he explained, noting that stable and low inflation levels support the case for monetary easing.

FICCI has outlined several recommendations for the upcoming Union Budget, with defense modernization topping the list.

The industry body is seeking a 30 per cent increase in capital outlay for defense, a 10 per cent rise in operating expenditure, and an additional Rs 10,000 crore investment in the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

'The nature of warfare is changing with increased use of technology, drones, unmanned vehicles,' Goenka noted.

'That investment is something that is very relevant and important for us to be self-reliant on,' he said.

Other key recommendations include establishing mega industrial parks for electronics manufacturing, modeled on successful hubs in Shenzhen and Vietnam, with plug-and-play infrastructure to support the entire electronics supply chain.

FICCI is also pushing for enhanced export promotion measures and a national mineral mission focused on tailings recovery to extract minerals and rare earths from fly ash and mining waste.

Goenka outlined FICCI's ambitious goal to increase manufacturing's contribution to GDP from the current 15-16 per cent to 25 per cent.

The strategy rests on four pillars. Boosting innovation and R&D spending from 0.7 per cent to over 1 per cent of GDP, improving ease of doing business, achieving manufacturing excellence through quality improvements, women's participation, Industry 4.0 adoption and strengthening trade and supply chain security.

'We are working with our members and with the government to leverage the FTAs and secure supplies of key material,' Goenka said, acknowledging emerging uncertainties in global supply chains. (ANI)