Murthy calls for higher foreign investment

Infosys chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy feels that India would need nearly $480 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) over the next 10 years, which is a much higher estimate when compared to the one envisaged by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In his opening remarks at the Stanford-India Development Conference 2004, Murthy said, "Concentrating on exports is key in order to be recognised globally. Increased exports will encourage FDI. Though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh feels that we need to attract $150 billion FDI, my own numbers indicate that that we should get $480 billion in the next 10 years if we really aspire to be economically strong."

Murthy also stressed on developmental economics as it binds the issues of social equity, ideology, principles and practices that can always be argued till "fire freezes". According to him, the problem of poverty could be solved by wooing people to move out of agriculture.

"Nearly 660 million Indians grow about 230 million tonne of grain every year. If we have to move away from agriculture, we must seek opportunities in manufacturing and services. Since disposable income is low, we have to look at exports. Given that exports contribute 11-12 per cent of the GDP, it is important to create proper policies," Murthy explained.

He said that India must first look at creating a positive spiral of investments while trying to focus on global opportunities. "This requires a unified approach between industry, academia and the political leaders," he said.

While stressing on exports, Murthy also highlighted the importance of having a good supply-chain mechanism which plays a crucial role in exports.

Murthy said that the need of the day for economists, besides all the rhetoric, is to make the political leaders create more quality jobs.

"We also need good tax revenues which will come from people who create wealth and have good disposable income. The way to move ahead is by creating an environment that would make our political leaders sit up and take notice of the implications of not being able to create quality jobs."

In conclusion, he said that that the time was ripe for our economists to stand up use data as the "key metrics to solve poverty".

Arrest drastic

Infosys chairman N R Narayana Murthy described the arrest of Baazee.com CEO Avinash Bajaj arrest in MMS scandal as "too drastic".

Stating that such an action called for the need for proper laws on electronic auctions, Murthy said, "Education is the key thing. We need to spend more time in framing proper laws for electronic auctions. Then we can avoid going for these type of drastic actions."

He stressed that people need to be educated on what can be bought and sold on the Internet.

"An opinion has to be created where everyone understands the implications and the rules of the game."

He did not wish to comment on the MMS scandal as he was not aware of the details.