<div><em>Industry asks government to invest more in agriculture, irrigation, food processing, and infrastructure</em></div><div> </div><div>In the backdrop of the global economic turmoil, including the one in India’s backyard, China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (September 9) stressed the need for capitalising on the opportunity that the prevailing global economic scenario presented to the country.</div><div> </div><div>Speaking at the end of a three-hour meeting on “Recent Global Events: Opportunities for India” that was attended by who’s who of Indian industry, in addition to Modi’s senior Cabinet colleagues, civil servants, economists and top bankers, the PM said that there was a need to further strengthen Indian economy, even as he appealed to the private sector to “increase more investments” in the country.</div><div> </div><div>The PM hoped that the private sector would contribute more in job creation in the country, even as it was felt that the maximum avenues would be created in the MSME sector. The bankers were specially asked to cater to the MSME sector and the unorganised sector.</div><div> </div><div>“The Prime Minister stressed on the importance of job creation, MSME sector, and Make in India, for India,” said Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha, after the meeting. “The Prime Minister urged all the stakeholders to work together to build India,” he added.</div><div> </div><div>“Prime Minister has said that industry must take risk and increase investments... We must go out and invest. Industry has a role to play,” said CII president Sumit Mazumder. ASSOCHAM president Rana Kapoor said that Prime Minister asked industry to “catalyse risk taking ability”.</div><div> </div><div>The three-hour session began with a power-point presentation by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam, followed by interventions of top industry captains. Top economists including Niti Aayog’s Arvind Panagariya and Bibek Debroy gave their own assessments of the prevailing economic situation.</div><div> </div><div>It was felt that India was relatively untouched by the global economic meltdown and there was only a transient impact, like the one on markets. “Extreme volatility is the norm. (But) India is a lesser-impacted country… (Because) our fundamentals are strong,” said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, referring to the proceedings of the meeting.</div><div> </div><div>In all, twenty seven speakers analysed the prevailing global events and how they impacted the Indian economy.</div><div> </div><div>Majority of the speakers felt that the government must concentrate more and invest more in agriculture, irrigation, food processing, and infrastructure, said Jaitley, talking to the media, after the PM’s interaction with India Inc. More needs to be done in ease of doing business, it was felt.</div><div> </div><div>Most of the industry captains felt that the GST would go a long way in boosting the economy. There was not much discussion about the land bill, although one speaker did point out that states ought to be given more freedom in other legislations too, like they are being asked to enact their own land laws.</div><div> </div><div>Stressed sectors like steel and textiles needed to be de-stressed, it was felt.</div><div> </div><div>Many of the industry captains wanted a change in the definition of corruption, in the Prevention of Corruption Act. The government representatives said that it was already being done. The industry representatives wanted a new bankruptcy code.</div><div> </div><div>“The main issues discussed during the meeting were slowdown in China, how to convert the present global situation into an opportunity, ease of doing business and ways to boost agriculture,” said Majumder.</div><div> </div><div>“China was discussed. On how it should be tackled and whether it’s an opportunity for us. But Prime Minister did say that somebody’s pain should not be our gain. So we should look at it as an opportunity and we should move forward on that,” he said.</div><div> </div><div>Industry captains flagged off various issues. ITC’s Y C Deveshwar wanted the government to focus more on the food processing network in the country and the logistics part of it. GAIL India chairman B C Tripathi stressed the need for strengthening the gas infrastructure in the country.</div><div> </div><div>Some of them wanted MNREGA to be used for skill development. Another suggestion was to popularize skill development as a mass movement, in rural India.</div><div> </div><div>Earlier, in his presentation, Subramanian said that the big opportunity for India is its untapped potential, including in the infrastructure sector. The chief economic advisor said that after the recent turmoil, prices of coal, cement, steel etc had come down, which would boost infrastructure.</div><div> </div><div>Among the industry leaders in the brain storming session were Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group’s Cyrus P Mistry, Aditya Birla Group head Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel and ITC chief Y C Deveshwar.</div><div> </div><div>Among Modi’s Cabinet colleagues, Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari, Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan were present, in addition to Jaitley and Sinha.</div><div> </div><div>Others who attended the meeting were BHEL chief B Prasad Rao, ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, Aditya Birla Groupchief economist Ajit Ranade, and Subir Gokarn of Brookings Institute were among the economists/experts present at the meeting.</div><div> </div><div>Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian as well as Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagriya and member Bibek Debroy were also present there.</div><div> </div>
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