<div>During UPA-II, the country’s GDP growth crashed from a high of 9.3 per cent in 2010-11 to around 4.8 per cent in 2013-14. As the new government readies to present its maiden Budget, opinion makers suggest ways to turbo-charge the economy<br /><br />“The government needs to make infrastructure investment friendly. It can consider giving a permanent guaranteed return on equity and take away all the risks associated with infrastructure investment. This will bring in FDI, pension funds and other long-term investors.”<br /><em>— AM Naik, Group Executive Chairman, Larsen & Toubro</em><br /><br />“Revive infrastructure and manufacturing sectors and promote FDI in defence and insurance. Also, create a consistent tax and legal framework and dispute-settlement mechanism. Review land acquisition processes to enable industrial growth in a transparent manner.”<br /><em>— Naina Lal Kidwai, Director, HSBC Asia Pacific and Chairman, India</em><br /><br />“Sops for housing, construction and auto sectors will help these sectors have significant backward and forward linkages with other key sectors.” <br /><em>— Brijesh Mehra, MD and Head, International Banking, India and South-east Asia, RBS</em><br /><br />“Retrospective tax amendments (especially of Section 9) must be immediately withdrawn. Retrospective amendments continue to erode global investor confidence in India.”<br /><em>— Nishith Desai, Founder & Managing Partner, Nishith Desai Associates</em><br /><br />“The mining sector is in crisis. We need a comprehensive legislation to replace the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957. It should reduce discretion, improve transparency in concession grants, incentivise deeper exploration, advanced technologies and attract FDI.” <br /><em>— S. Vijay Kumar, Distinguished Fellow, TERI</em><br /><br /><img width="150" vspace="4" hspace="4" height="150" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=a75569da-ce63-41ed-abf2-108fdbee7663&groupId=520986&t=1403520386287" alt="" />“Agricultural profitability can only improve by raising productivity. <br />The increase in profitability will come through measures that are outlined to increase productivity and not through an increase in minimum support prices (MSP).”<br /><em>— <strong>Ashok Gulati, </strong>Chair Professor, Agriculture, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations </em><br /><br />“Taming food inflation is key. Unless we tackle food inflation, the RBI is not going to ease interest rates. And unless you ease up interest rates, private sector investment in infrastructure and other areas is going to be delayed or may not even happen.”<br />— <em>A. Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI</em><br /><br /><img width="150" vspace="4" hspace="4" height="150" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=8348c99a-682c-4300-bf34-ed6f4074997b&groupId=520986&t=1403520482915" alt="" />“We need to go back to drafting a clean and simple DTC. And, we need to bring world-class ideas in public administration to build an effective and accountable tax administration that is grounded in the rule of law.” <br /><em>— <strong>Ajay Shah,</strong> Professor, NIPFP</em><br /><br />“Make bio-manufacturing the next big opportunity after generics for India. Invest $4-5 billion each year over the next five years to grow the biotech industry to $100 billion with a 25 per cent return on investment and set a growth rate of 30 per cent year on year.”<br /><em>— P.M. Murali, President, Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises</em><br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 14-07-2014)</div>
