Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday invited French companies to invest in India’s manufacturing sector, pitching the country as a trusted partner offering scale, talent and innovation opportunities.Speaking at the ‘Bharat Innovates’ event in Nice in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, Goyal said India can provide both a large domestic market and a manufacturing base for global exports.“I would invite our French friends to visit India, invest in India, design in India, innovate in India and manufacture in India, both for the large domestic market and export from India to the rest of the world,” he said, PTI quoted.Highlighting India’s position in an uncertain global economy, Goyal said countries were increasingly looking for dependable economic partners.“…and that is what India brings to the table,” he said.The minister added that innovation has become a defining feature of India’s economy and is being driven by a rapidly growing startup ecosystem.“In India, innovation is now a culture which is powered by 2,30,000 startups,” Goyal said.Prime Minister Modi is currently in France, where he is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Macron and attend the G7 Summit. He arrived in Nice on Saturday as part of a week-long tour that also includes a two-day visit to Slovakia.According to official data, bilateral trade between India and France stood at USD 15.81 billion in 2025-26 compared with USD 15.19 billion in 2024-25.France is India’s 11th-largest investor, with foreign direct investment of USD 12.25 billion between April 2000 and March 2025.
