All is not well between Modi and corporate India

The PM rapped the industry leaders when he met them on Tuesday for not doing enough to contribute to job growth

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn't worn a business suit when on Indian soil in the last several months, and rarely during his recent foreign travels. Close associates of the PM claim this effort to shed his government's image of a 'suit-book sarkar' isn't merely symbolic but has encompassed rapping the captains of industry when he met them on Tuesday for not doing enough to contribute to job growth.

Tuesday's meeting was primarily to convey to top industrialists that the government had risked enormous political capital to push through economic reforms, or attempted to, but the industry has continued to whine, behaved more like consultants than entrepreneurs and not invested enough in nation building.

 

According to a non-political but close associate of the PM, both Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah are disappointed with the so called 'Bombay Club' for not sufficiently supporting this government's economic reforms and continuously whining for more reforms.

Both are increasingly convinced that job growth will be fuelled by start-ups, new generation entrepreneurs and existing medium and small scale industries, rather than traditional industrialists. These are the areas the government is likely to provide more concessions in the months to come.

"While traditional big business has continued to seek concessions, all that the new age entrepreneurs want is a stable environment, transparent policy structures and non-interference from the government," the associate says.

Government schemes like Skill India, Start Up India and Mudra Bank have been targeted at spurring individual proprietorship, creating a trained workforce and innovation, the government is also working on more concessions for medium scale enterprises that have a turnover of upto Rs 500 million a year, said a person involved with BJP's economic policy planning.

The government, according to insiders, was now faced with a string of assembly polls from October this year to early 2017, and then prepare for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party's assessment is that with the big industry failing to support government efforts, it's the pro-poor and small entrepreneur image of the government that will not only help it politically but also be beneficial economically for the country.

The assessment at the top is that the government could have done little about the stock market troubles, and it isn't the 30 million demat account holders or the vicissitudes of the stock market that will decide the electoral fate of the government but job generation.

However, the government expects the industry to do more than just sign petitions to put pressure on the Congress to support such reforms as the Goods and Services Tax constitution amendment Bill in the winter session of Parliament.