India not so shining, says Pranab

Former Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said the consumption of calories by Indian citizens in five states, including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, had gone down significantly, leaving little for the nation to shine about.

He was addressing a meeting with industry chiefs organised in Mumbai on Saturday for "inviting suggestions from corporate India before the manifesto of Congress is announced for the coming elections".

"An Australian University professor has conducted the survey which shows that the consumption of calories has gone down in five Indian states. Similarly, since 1997, there have been 2009 cases of suicides of farmers in Anandpur district alone," Mukherjee said.

He said unless 32 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) comprised investments, a growth of 8.2 per cent could not be achieved.

"In addition, the small savings, that stood at 25.1 per cent during the last fiscal year of the Congress regime in India and that has reached 24.1 per cent now, has to witness a substantial improvement if growth levels being talked of are to be achieved," he said.

Corporate heads present on the occasion included Reliance group vice chairman and managing director Anil Ambani, Essar's Shashi Ruia, Zee Television head Subhash Chandra, Swati and Ajay Piramal, Niranjan Hiranandani and Akbarally's Fakruddin Khorakiwala.

Amongst the points raised by the industry leaders were issues related to the allocation of a at least 3 per cent of the tax collections retained by the Union government as its share while devolving 29 per cent to states, towards the development of cities.

Corruption in the government administration also figured during the industry interaction session with the panelists that included Mukherjee, member of parliament Santosh Bagrodia, Maharashtra chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ranjit Deshmukh and Bombay Regional Congress Committee chief Gurudas Kamat.

Chairman of the industry and trade cell of MRCC Raj H Shroff, who organised the meet along with Kamat, said as a follow-up measure, more such meetings and personal one-to-one meetings would be held between the industry leaders and the Congress leadership so that suggestions could be taken from the business sector on further boosting the economic prospects of the country.