'China plus one' opportunity opening up for India; TN doing its best to attract FDI

New Delhi: 'China plus one' opportunity is opening up for India and Tamil Nadu is doing its best to take the state's competitive advantage in attracting foreign direct investments, former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian said on Thursday. Addressing an event organised by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, Subramanian further said India was not able to attract FDI like China, Taiwan and Vietnam, due to which the domestic firms have not been able to integrate with global value chain. Not being part of the global value chain have adversely impacted our exports and labour-intensive sector, he said, adding that 'China plus one' opportunity is opening up for India and Tamil Nadu is doing its best to take its competitive advantage in attracting foreign direct investments. Subramanian, currently a senior fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics, noted that India's manufacturing labour-intensive sector has underperformed due to various reasons including strict labour laws and small firm size. 'China plus one' refers to the global trend of multinational firms moving to other countries, in addition to China. Also, speaking at the event, former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, "We are in a serious danger of stigmatising many serious businessmen." Recently, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin had said the state has attracted investments worth over Rs 9 lakh crore in the last three years and generated 31 lakh new jobs.