India Inc for voluntary quotas

PM calls upon industry to broadbase employment

The private sector should not be forced to implement job quotas for the underprivileged, captains of the Indian industry said today.

The industry leaders were responding to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's comments that it was the responsibility of both the government and business to achieve stable, equitable and just growth.

Calling industry to broadbase employment, the prime minister said, "I urge you to give more attention to questions of social and economic discrimination and deprivation, to the educational and health status of our people, to employment generation, to social security, and to the empowerment of women and minorities." Singh was addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry's annual session in New Delhi.

Industry, however, opposed any law for mandatory reservations in the private sector.

"Industry needs to do something about it (uplift of the underprivileged) but at the same time there should not be any legislation in this regard," Bharti Tele-ventures Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

He said industry and the government needed to come together to adopt a middle path to solve the issue.

Asked how satisfied he was with industry's efforts on this front, Mittal said the manufacturing sector's contribution was quite large and that of agriculture significantly larger, but the service sector's participation was quite limited.

He said the CII was working closely with the government to strike a right balance, "so that the country does not suffer, political leaders fulfil their promises to the masses and industry can grow."

Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj said "There might be a backlash from the non-reserved categories... Legislation is not right way to provide opportunities to people from the reserved categories." It (legislation) should not be forced, he added.

CII president YC Deveshwar echoed the view, saying quotas should be voluntary.

Earlier, an empowered group of ministers had suggested that reservation in the private sector was possible only through a new law.

With controversy over Narmada dam fresh in his mind, the prime minister also made a strong plea for striking a balance between development and rehabilitation and to evolve credible mechanisms so that such issues do "not degenerate into confrontations" between sections of society.

"I think time has come to squarely address the issue of development, displacement and environment," he said.