Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited top industry leaders for a meeting on Monday morning to discuss the current economic slowdown and seek their views.
The main agenda of the meeting would be to increase public spending through public-private partnerships in creating infrastructure and jobs, said sources from the prime minister’s office.
The industry side will be represented by the two Ambani brothers, DLF’s Chairman KP Singh, Ratan Tata and Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Group. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D Subbarao and Finance Minister P Chidambaram will also attend the meeting.
“It is a national challenge and the government wants suggestions from industry for policy actions,” said the president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who has also been invited.
Economists around the world have suggested increased government spending as a way out of the current crisis, where private investment and consumption has slowed down. In India, RBI has projected a growth rate of 7.5-8 per cent for the current fiscal, substantially lower than the average growth rate of over 8.5 per cent in the last four years.