India Inc. has appreciated the candid posture of this year's Economic Survey and hoped the recommendations made in it would be reflected in the national budget to be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday. The reactions:
Harshavardhan Neotia, president, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry:
The Economic Survey has highlighted that India's potential growth rate is in the range of 8-10 percent and achieving the same requires a push in three critical areas which are promoting entrepreneurship and reducing the role of the state, higher investments in health and education, and greater focus on agriculture. FICCI completely agrees with this prognosis... We hope that the forthcoming Union Budget will continue with its thrust on each of these areas.
Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, Confederation of Indian Industry:
We are very happy to see that a significant section of the commentary in the Survey is dedicated to this aspect and the 4Rs: Recognition, Recapitalisation, Resolution and Reform have been stated as the strategy to deal with the problem, which has been holding up growth and especially private sector investments.
Sunil Kanoria, president, Associated Chambers of Commerce of India:
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While India can take a legitimate sense of pride in being the haven of stability in an otherwise gloomy global economy, the Economic Survey has rightly highlighted the need for being prepared to face any spill-over of major currency adjustments in China and other Asian economies.
Mahesh Gupta, president, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry:
Government's commitment to carry the reform process forward is highly encouraging and indicates that the double-digit growth trajectory is not far away. However, lot needs to be done in the ease of doing business as the economy is moving from socialism to marketism without exit policy. Creating a more captive environment would be critical to address the exit problem which affects the performance of businesses and economy.
Richard Rekhy, chief executive officer, KPMG in India:
While the growth-range forecast of 7 to 7.75 per cent for 2016-17 is lower than earlier projections, however, looking at the current global economic scenario, it is significant. Addressing key problems such as scaling up investment, downsizing subsidies, creating a predictable and clean tax policy environment, and quickening disinvestment might need to be the milestones in the short-term road map for the Indian economy.
Kamlesh Rao, CEO, Kotak Securities:
The 2016-17 numbers are realistic when seen against the backdrop of a slower global economy. We also believe that, these numbers have discounted the potential impact of any sharp rise in crude prices. The inflation rate in 2016-17 is pegged at 4.5-5 percent which, we believe is reasonable, in the light of low commodity prices and flattish growth projected in 2016-17.
Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist, India Ratings & Research:
Economic Survey 2016 outlines many of the imperatives that are well known and emphasizes on investment in human capital. No doubt both aspects of human capital - education and health are critical for reaping the demographic dividend and if this indeed is government thought process then hopefully 2017 budget will devote more resources in these areas.Dhananjay Sinha, head, institutional research, economist and strategist, Emkay Global Financial Services:
Overall, the survey has highlighted the achievements of the government in the past two years and has attributed the slowness in growth to global factors. In our view, the scope for monetary easing is limited due to persistent and acute shortfall in liquidity which could only get aggravated if, as the surveys projects, the global financial conditions worsens.