Call to entrepreneurs to use capital more productively

Calling upon entrepreneurs to make capital more productive to achieve universal livelihood for the people of the country, Y C Deveshwar, chairman of ITC Limited, said it was the effectiveness, not the size, that matters for the industry.

Speaking at the annual awards function of the Hyderabad Management Association (HMA) here on Saturday, Deveshwar complemented small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for their relevance to the time and needs of a growing economy.

"SMEs find relevance for themselves in the society. That is where new things originate," he said, adding that while liberalising the country's economy in the 90s, the policy-makers had unwittingly unleashed the entrepreneurial energies of the country resulting in the present status of India in the eyes of the world.

While stating that the management resources and the finance capital are the two requirements to ensure the development of the country to the level where no one lives in poverty, he said the capital had to be made productive to achieve that goal.

"We may as well import Chinese goods to India and earn profits. But, what we require to do is to make the capital productive to ensure livelihood for more and more people here," he said.

Stressing the 'triple bottom line' approach for the industry which ITC has adopted as a sustainable model of development, Deveshwar said vision and values would help individuals and companies grow big and profit should be considered as a byproduct and not the end of their effort.

According to Deveshwar, ITC already turned water and carbon positive and would turn solid waste positive in a couple of years from now.

L&T Infocity chief operating officer R Sridharan (Manager of the Year), SEC Industries managing director D Vidyasagar (Entrepreneur of the Year), Polmon Instruments private Limited managing director Anand Manne (Small Scale Entrepreneur of the Year), Infotech Enterprises limited executive vice-president B Ashok Reddy (Personnel Manager of the Year) and the Centre for Organisation Development's chairman B L Maheshwari (Lifetime Achievement Award) received the awards instituted by HMA from the ITC head.