PM to meet industry leaders today amid global market turmoil

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday hold a wide-ranging discussion on global economic scenario with business leaders, including Reliance Industries head Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry as well as bankers and economists.
"The meeting will be attended by over 40 delegates, including Cabinet ministers, top officials of the government and RBI, industry representatives, top bankers and leading economists and sectoral experts," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said.
The high-level consultative meeting on the agenda -- 'Recent Global Events: Opportunities for India', would also be attended by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya.
The meeting is being held amid turbulence in global markets caused by a slowing Chinese economy, devaluation of the yuan and concerns surrounding the prospect of a US rate hike.
As many as 27 business leaders, bankers and economists have been invited for the meeting to deliberate on the recent developments in the global economy and the opportunities they present for India, sources said.
Other invitees include Bharti Airtel chief Sunil Bharti Mittal, Essar Group head Shashi Ruia, Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani, Adani Group head Gautam Adani, ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya.
Mahindra Group Chairman and MD Anand Mahindra and Aditya Birla Group head Kumar Mangalam Birla are said to be among the other invitees for the meeting for which industry chambers' heads -- Sumit Mazumder of CII, Jyotsna Suri of FICCI and Rana Kapoor of Assocham -- have also been called.
Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian will be present at the meeting.
Each speaker will be given three minutes to make initial remarks, sources said.
"A wide-ranging discussion is expected on the impact of recent economic events, and how best India can take advantage of them," the PMO statement said.
The government had earlier said India should take advantage of the global turbulence and look at how to convert it into an opportunity.
The Prime Minister would hear the stakeholders as to how India can take the baton from China and lead global growth, sources added.
Modi in his first interaction with industry chambers on June 30 had met business leaders to hear their grievances on issues ranging from high capital cost to ease of doing business to certainty on taxation matters.
Sources said other issues that could crop up during the meeting tomorrow may include the government allowing an Ordinance that eased land acquisition rules to lapse, deadlock on the GST Bill in Parliament and the ease of doing business.
Last time, the Prime Minister had separate meetings with the delegations of the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry which raised issues like investments not picking up due to high cost of capital, poor credit growth and difficulties faced by small and medium enterprises in doing business.
 
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