 "Prime Minister, Narendra Modi chairing a high-level meeting on the global economic scenario, in New Delhi")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with industrialists, bankers and economists on Tuesday to take stock of the global economic turmoil turned into a brainstorming session on start-ups, smart cities, job creation and ‘Make in India’. The stock market and the rupee recovered later in the day.
At the meeting, Modi asked businesses to increase their risk appetite and step up investments, while corporate leaders sought lower interest rates and more policy action to enhance the ease of doing business. Industry captains who attended the meeting included Mukesh Ambani, Cyrus Mistry, Sunil Mittal, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Y C Deveshwar, Dilip Shanghvi, Gautam Adani and Azim Premji.
The prime minister’s message to India Inc was it should contribute to nation-building through investment and jobs. Some invitees said the global crisis should be seen as a new normal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the media after the meeting.
Industrialists, along with bankers such as Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chanda Kochhar and Chandra Shekhar Ghosh and economists, including Ruchir Sharma, Jahangir Aziz, Subir Gokarn and Neelkanth Mishra, made short presentations on how India could be insulated from the global economic turmoil. This was followed by a discussion.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan, whose views have often clashed with those of the government, was among the 45 delegates present. The government was represented by ministers Arun Jaitley, Jayant Sinha, Suresh Prabhu, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan, apart from bureaucrats from the finance ministry and NITI Aayog.
“What we are looking at is different steps to strengthen the Indian economy,” Jaitley said. The steps included investment in infrastructure, irrigation, attracting more global investment and generating private investment, he added.
The 27 invitees (industrialists, bankers and economists) put forward their views during the three-hour meeting, Jaitley said. “They analysed recent global events and opportunities for India, it being a net importer of commodities,” he added.
Sumit Mazumder, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, who attended the meeting, said, “To counter the global demand slowdown, India should target rural demand at home by investing in agriculture, irrigation and rural infrastructure.’’ Mazumder also raised issues such as smart cities and start-ups. “India’s start-up culture would benefit from the prime minister’s call of ‘Start Up, India; Stand Up, India.’”
Jyotsna Suri president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said, “India has both demand and supply — a large young workforce and ample natural resources. We must push our global competitiveness in the current environment. While we should continue to market India as an attractive investment destination under the ‘Make in India’ campaign, it is equally important to encourage domestic investments”. In her presentation to the PM, she also referred to the ‘Start-up India; Stand up India’ campaign which, she said, could play a significant role in creating livelihood opportunities. Rana Kapoor, head of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry, presented a 12-point plan on ‘Recent global events — opportunities for India’. It included monetary easing, incentivising the import of equity capital, faster project clearances to revive investment, smart city bonds, affordable housing and setting up India’s equivalent of the Silicon Valley in the Mumbai-Pune belt. In his concluding remarks, Modi underscored the importance of low-cost manufacturing and indicated the strength of the economy lay in its human resources and the size of the market, which wasn’t export-dependent. The PM cited small and medium enterprises and skill development as ways to support the unorganised sector. “He (Modi) suggested to industry that it should contribute to nation-building by investing in India,” Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha told reporters. “The prime minister called on everyone to work together and focus on job creation to get India through a turbulent period in the global economy.” Raising spending on infrastructure and concentrating on agriculture were vital for strengthening the economy, Jaitley said. Sectors such as food processing, textiles and tourism were emphasised in this regard. There were suggestions for relief to sectors undergoing stress, such as steel, textiles, power distribution and tourism. Cost of labour and capital, stalled projects and measures against dumping also came up for discussion. The meeting also touched upon legislative steps on a bankruptcy code and the definition of corruption.
