The response of Indian corporates to the monumental tragedy in Uttarakhand was lacking, I&B minister Manish Tewari today said and hoped that the industry would contribute more to the rehabilitation efforts.
"We have a huge corporate sector. India is a two trillion dollar economy today. Seventy five per cent of India's GDP is in the private sector.... Corporate India has a very robust conscience. Corporate India also has deep pockets so we would have hoped that the response from corporate India would have been far more robust to the tragedy in Uttarakhand," Tewari told reporters here.
"But be that as may, there is still time. After the rescue and relief, the rehabilitation and rebuilding efforts are on and we do hope that corporate India will come forth and contribute in substantive measure keeping in view their economic muscle in India's GDP," he added.
Earlier speaking at an event organised by the Institute of Directors, Tewari said that during the monumental tragedy in Uttarakhand where armed forces and other organisations performed commendably, what struck him the most was the "lack of a significant corporate response."
He said there had been efforts by telecom companies to restore services in the calamity affected regions, more could have been done by the private sector.
"We have so many private airlines, why haven't any of them even volunteered to run a single free flight to get people out of Dehradun," Tewari said. He said that the corporate India had a deep conscience but it had to rise to the occasion.
He said that he had heard the Chilean Defence minister say that when an earthquake had struck the country, the corporate sector of the country was the first to respond.
