 "Lord Swraj Paul")
Leading NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul has expressed hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be able to mobilise corporate India, just as he has been masterful in spearheading political India.
Speaking at the two-day annual meeting of the Indian Institute of Directors here on Wednesday, Paul, Chairman of the Caparo Group of industries said "whatever our ideological differences may be, I am encouraged by the bold approaches of the Indian Government recently. We are not yet sure of the longer range outcomes, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi deserves plaudits for firmness and personal decisiveness."
"After all, he faces an accumulation of inherited issues and there is no gain without pain. I hope he will continue to be resolute because there is no other way to achieve his goal of a five trillion dollar size economy. Unless we move rapidly towards this target, the population base of India will overwhelm economic progress and produce results that nobody wants to see," he said.
He noted that just as Prime Minister Modi has been masterful in mobilising political India, "I hope that he will be able to mobilise corporate India."
"All of you know the enormous potential of mobilising private enterprise. Right now, I believe that it is make or break time and we should give a lot more time to focus on creating this momentum. Just look at it this way: in recent times, has any economy been successful without mobilising private enterprise?"
"The challenges of managing an economy with all these constraints present demands that no other government on earth has to accommodate. That is why I sometimes think that we should be a little more generous in our critical analysis. To me it is a wonder that we have come so far," he said.
