NEW DELHI: Batting for opening of sectors such as legal and finance to foreign players, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked the services industry to overcome its fears, asserting that India is globally competitive and suggesting that the country could become a hub for global arbitration with some changes in legislation.“Why should we need to go outside the country for global arbitration? We shouldn’t think that if foreign lawyers come here, they will take away our jobs,” the Prime Minister said, speaking at the inauguration of the three-day Global Exhibition on Services GES ). India must also work on intellectual property rights guidelines to match global standards, he said. With a 3.2% share in global services trade, India has a trade surplus in the sector, unlike the large deficit in merchandise trade.India’s services exports stood at $151 billion in 2014-15. To give thrust to services exports, India is organising the first GES, with participants from 60 countries including Pakistan, Australia, US, Russia and Germany. The Modi-led NDA government aims to encourage services sector along with the ‘Make in India’ campaign which is aimed at reviving manufacturing. The PM said India must align its patent laws with international standards to enhance collaboration and trade in sectors such as entertainment.“India needs to work on IPR guidelines matching global standards,” said Modi. This comes amid intense pressure from developed countries including the US, which have asked India to amend its IPR rules. The PM said that India has made the transformation from a country worried about its “brain drain,” to a country that thinks of “brain gain”.The focus sectors in the exhibition include IT and telecom, tourism, media and entertainment, healthcare, logistics, professional services (including project exports, banking and financial services, education, R&D, space, and the small and medium enterprises engaged in services). In order to strengthen India’s position in finance, the PM said the government is keen that global investments come directly to India rather than get routed through countries such as Mauritius and Singapore. The GES, jointly organised by the commerce ministry and industry lobby CII, is a platform to showcase India’s strength in the services sector.Pointing out that in the coming years India will only become a younger country, the Prime Minister said that people of different regions have different talents and efforts could be made to develop those specific skills to take advantage of the requirement of the global community. He added that there is a need to think of “multiple layers of services” which can be exported to the world.Speaking at the inauguration, Sunil Bharti Mittal, CEO and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, pointed out that work was on to ensure that India gets a world-class broadband network so that internet can be accessed by all at the earliest. He added that there is a need to negotiate movement of people at the WTO to ensure that India gains from the global pact. Pratap C Reddy of Apollo said that the launch of visa-on-arrival and evisa facilities for a number of countries will make a significant impact on the inflow of foreigners wanting to avail themselves of medical services in India.