WASHINGTON, Aug 26: India is currently the fastest-growing major economy in the world and offers significant investment opportunities driven by its scale, sustained growth, young population, rising consumption and expanding capital markets, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday.
Addressing prominent members of the Indian business community in Toronto, Sitharaman invited Canadian investors to explore India's expanding economic opportunities.
“For Canadian investors with long time horizon, India offers a combination that is difficult to match: scale, sustained growth, a young population, expanding consumption and rapidly deepening capital markets,” she said.
Sitharaman said India's economic transformation was structural, supported by rapid urbanisation, the expansion of the middle class and the development of world-class digital infrastructure. These factors, she said, were opening up opportunities across almost every sector.
The Finance Minister also highlighted India's digital ecosystem and its role in improving access to financial and commercial services.
She said the country's digital infrastructure had significantly lowered access costs while expanding the reach of financial services.
Sitharaman pointed out that the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), by transaction volume, is the world's largest real-time payments system and has emerged as a major driver of financial inclusion, efficiency and innovation.
She said there was considerable scope for collaboration between Indian and Canadian banks, fintech companies and regulators, particularly in payments and the development of next-generation digital financial infrastructure.
Highlighting the growing economic relationship between India and Canada, Sitharaman described the Indian diaspora in Canada as a strategic bridge between the two countries.
She said the community had a strong presence across Canadian boardrooms, financial markets and pension fund institutions, helping strengthen economic ties.
Sitharaman said India-Canada relations had undergone a significant transformation in recent times, backed by shared democratic and pluralistic values, growing economic engagement, high-level interactions and strong people-to-people ties.
Referring to the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in June 2025, she said both countries had reaffirmed their commitment to building a future-oriented strategic partnership.
The partnership was further strengthened during Carney's visit to India earlier this year, she said, with the launch of negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), a CAD 2.6 billion uranium agreement with Cameco and the adoption of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” as the guiding framework for the renewed strategic partnership.
The two countries have also set an ambition to more than double bilateral trade to CAD 70 billion by 2030, she said.
Sitharaman said the India-Canada partnership was increasingly expanding beyond capital flows towards deeper institutional cooperation.
“Capital markets are only one dimension of a modern financial partnership,” she said, emphasising the broader potential for economic and financial collaboration between the two countries.
