Mumbai, February 13 (IANS) Unfolding the red carpet for domestic and foreign investors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the "Make in India Week" here on Saturday, showcased as the largest event of its kind in the country to project it as the preferred global hub for manufacturing. The prime minister also listed a number of initiatives taken by his government to make it easier for doing business in India, along with enabling policy decisions and corrections. "I repeat, we also decided there will be no retrospective taxation," he said at the inaugural. [espro-slider id=181716] "Make in India has become the biggest brand India ever created. It has captured the imagination of people, business, institutions, political leaders and media," he said at the National Sports Club of India's indoor stadium that was packed beyond its 5,000 capacity. Modi said the efforts were showing. "Our foreign direct investment inflow has gone by 48 percent since the day my government came into office," the prime minister said. He also said concerns over intellectual property and bankruptcy laws were also being addressed. "Almost on a daily basis we are trying to remove the bottlenecks that were affecting business," he said. It was, therefore, not surprising that a host of multilateral institutions have said India will log even better growth that the present 7.5 percent in the coming years, he added. "In 2014-15, India contributed 12.5 percent to global growth. It's contribution to to the global growth is 68 percent higher than its share of world economy," he said, amid applause from the audience, which included chief ministers, ambassadors, industrialists and policy-makers. Modi said India was particularly keen on scaling up investments in infrastructure -- from roads and railways to digital networks and clean energy. Towards this, he said, interest-free bonds were the next on the agenda. "Do not wait. Do not relax. You should take advantage of the immense opportunities in India." The event also saw the Time India award conferred on Tata Steel for best in class manufacturing, Hero MotoCorp for innovator of the year and Yogesh and Rajesh Agarwal of Ajanta Pharma for young maker of the year. Earlier, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India was ready as a global manufacturing hub. "The idea of the Make in India plan was to make the environment in the country from the regulated to a facilitator," said Sitharaman, adding this has resulted in a vast improvement in ease of doing business in the country. "This is a moment India is cherishing."
