Speaking at an interactive session organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce, on the growth of Indian industry, Murli Manohar Joshi, member of the Parliament and former HRD minister, highlighted the need for retail laws to regulate the industry.
As such there is no retail law in our country, which is not conducive to our overall development, he said
He questioned the need for displacing the age old low capital system with the international retail chain groups be it international giants like Wal-Mart, Carrefour or the Reliance group.
Joshi added, "Such big capitalist groups can only be adopted under strict scrutiny and regulation."
Joshi,also chairman,parliamentary standing committee on commerce, said that his committee was studying the various capital groups in India ,the size of each group and would meet the secretary of commerce within two days with the first draft of their recommendations on this area. There is a need to regulate these big capitalist groups with specific laws and policies, he added.
This apart, the committee had also recommended certain changes in the Land Acquistion Act 1894 and the SEZ policy, and had drafted a list of recommendations on the type of land to be given for SEZ development, type of compensation package to be given He ended by saying that there cannot be any straight jacket, simple solution for Indian industry, which is very diversified.
"There has to be a sector wise approach," he added. Speaking about the agriculture sector,he said that there was a need for attaining food security.
"With annual grain production at less than 200 kg per capita, we are the largest malnutritioned state. There is a need to increase this production through biotechnology and other scientific means," said Joshi.
However, he added that there was a need for a gradual shift from chemical, harmful fertilisers to environment-friendly bio-fertilizers to attain sustainable development in the long run.
More investment in agriculture is needed, specially to reduce the transportation cost, improve storage facility and improvising technology. Speaking about education, he strongly resented the recent hike in the IIM and IIT fee structure, condemning it as unnecessary and exorbitant, labelling it as corporatisation of education, which is unjustified.
On the sidelines of another interactive session organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Joshi's book Science Sustainibility and Indian National Resurgence was launched, where he spoke about the concept of sustainable development which is directly linked to sustainable consumption and that development has to be redefined in more holistic terms.
