Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday invited French companies to invest in India’s manufacturing sector, and pitched the country as a reliable partner offering opportunities for scale, talent and innovation.Speaking at the ‘India 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 manufacturing base for global exports.“I would invite our French friends to come to India, invest in India, design in India, innovate in India and manufacture in India, both for the huge domestic market and to export from India to the rest of the world,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.Highlighting India’s position in the uncertain global economy, Goyal said countries are increasingly looking for reliable economic partners.“…and this is what India brings to the table,” he said.The minister said innovation has become a defining feature of India’s economy and is being driven by the rapidly growing startup ecosystem.“In India, innovation is now a culture driven 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, which also includes a two-day visit to Slovakia.According to official data, bilateral trade between India and France stood at US$ 15.81 billion in 2025-26, while it stood at US$ 15.19 billion in 2024-25.France is the 11th largest investor in India with foreign direct investment of US$12.25 billion between April 2000 and March 2025.
