The Hindu : CII wish list to take India Inc. to greater heights

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002

Business

Business

CII wish list to take India Inc. to greater heights

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 29. The new chief of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Ashok Soota, today set for all those representing Indian Inc. to ensure that India reached the top 20 on the World Economic Forum's Growth Competitiveness Index at least by 2010.

Addressing his first press conference after assuming charge as president of the industry body, Mr. Soota, before spelling out his priorities, outlined his organisations GDP growth forecast for 2002-03 under two scenarios. In the first "business as usual" scenario, the Indian economy would grow by 5.2 per cent. In the second scenario, a growth of over 6 per cent was possible provided the reform momentum continued.

To survive and grow, the CII president said "Global competition will be the name of the game and competitiveness will be the key not only for growth but also for survival". "Indian Inc. represents the national government, State governments, business and industry, voluntary services/NGOs, agriculture, services and infrastructure," he said elaborating the theme for 2002-03 "Competitiveness of India Inc".

Mr. Soota said enhancing competitiveness would mean adopting a two-pronged strategy for providing the much needed edge to survive ever growing competition globally. The first part would be made of industry action with companies taking initiatives to benchmark with best international norms and improving their competitiveness. The other part would comprise governmental action including domestic policy reforms coupled with external sector reforms at the Centre and State levels.

Mr. Soota came out with a eleven-point wish list identifying measures the industry expected from the Government. Toping the list was their demand that in relation to WTO and global issues the Government would focus on ensuring that the agenda for the Mexico Ministerial Conference would be industrial tariff. He also emphasised the need for partnership with industry and protection India's negotiating position and spreading greater awareness on GATS (services).

On the question of foreign direct investment, he said the Government should focus on the promotion of select sectors including telecom, biotechnology, IT-enabled services as also traditional sectors, apart from reviewing FDI caps and creating a conducive environment for investment flow.

He also talked about the much needed tax reforms, financial sector reforms, agricultural reforms, introducing long overdue critical legislations and attending to the immediate needs for further stimulating infrastructural development activity to reap its far reaching benefits for the entire economy in the long run.

The new CII chief also suggested setting up of four new councils to assay developments and formulate strategies in agriculture, manufacturing, convergence and public policy. There should be a separate North-East Committee to promote literacy and healthcare in the region in order to bring these areas in the national mainstream.

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