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Jaitley initiates dialogue with CEOs

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 11. The Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Arun Jaitley, today began the series of pre-Exim Policy consultations with industry by meeting representatives of the services sector for the first time. He told them that in order to accelerate export growth there was need to identify some key areas to act as engines of growth. While exporters gave him plenty of procedural suggestions, he hoped to get the bigger picture from the gathering of CEOs.

He met members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)) representing a wide range of sectors including agriculture and food processing, entertainment and media, telecom and IT services, healthcare, engineering consultancy and education among services and textiles, auto components and IT hardware in manufacturing.

On behalf of the CII, Hari Bhartia listed out ten key suggestions and said the policy benefits of special economic zones needed to spread across the country introducing the concept of virtual SEZs.

The Ranbaxy CEO, D. S. Brar, also pointed out that the domain knowledge developed in the existing pharma manufacturing units could not be transferred to a new unit located in a distant SEZ and hence the need for virtual SEZs for this sector.

The presentation on agriculture and food processing by the ITC Chairman, Y. C. Deveshwar, emphasised the need to promote the competitiveness of the Indian farmer. Specifically, an official release says the recommendation was to give tax breaks on investment in agriculture against a commitment on future exports.

The Vice Chairman of Hindustan Lever, M. K. Sharma, suggested other measures for promoting Indian processed food exports including the reform of Indian food laws, availability of refrigeration infrastructure at ports, government support for tea and marine exports and reduction in power tariffs. The IT services industry represented by Mohan Das Pai of Infosys made two sets of demands. First some suggestions on India's economic diplomacy and second related to specific benefits given to the sector. He said India should lobby to lift visa restrictions and try to enter into agreements with developed countries which would enable IT workers to save on tax payments.

Pointing out the enormous potential of the Indian entertainment and media industry, Shekhar Kapur said export of films would help promote Indian culture and tourism. Fresh infusion of funds needed to be encouraged by giving tax breaks to corporations and high net worth individuals who want to invest in media.

In healthcare services, the executive director of the Escorts Heart Institute, Naresh Trehan, highlighted India's success in stopping the outflow of patients and even in attracting patients from neighbouring countries.

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