Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked the industry to take risks and ramp up investments as the government sent out a message that India was relatively stable in the current global volatility and sought to convert the crisis into an opportunity.
The Prime Minister met India Inc, bankers, economists along with some of his key ministers in a three-hour meeting to brainstorm on the current volatile global economic situation arising out of the slowdown in China and the subsequent impact on equity and currency markets.
“The Prime Minister has said that industry must take risk and increase investments... we must go out and invest. Industry has a role to play,” CII president Sumit Mazumder said after the meeting. Many industry representatives sought a cut in interest rates which could revive investments.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the thrust of the meeting was that India was relatively less impacted except the shadow on markets and the feeling was India must utilise this opportunity.
Jaitley said the private sector must increase its investments since it had more risk-taking ability. The brainstorming also noted that since India was a net importer of crude and commodities, which have fallen the most, it stands to gain and must build on this advantage.
In his presentation, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian pointed out that the cost of building infrastructure would come down as the prices of coal, cement and steel had fallen sharply.
The Prime Minister emphasised on job creation, boosting low-cost manufacturing and felt the strength of economy lay in its huge human resource, size of domestic market and that it was not entirely dependent on export.
He also underscored the role of small and medium enterprises sector and utilising MNERGA funds as a possible tool for skill development and MUDRA Bank for supporting the unorganised sector, Jaitley said.
The Finance Minister pointed out that the accent was on taking steps to further strengthen the economy. Among suggestions received at the meeting to boost the economy was to focus on agriculture, which will have a cascading effect and also play a role in increasing consumption.
The industry also suggested expediting the investment process, enhancing ease of doing business, de-stressing the stressed sectors such as steel and textiles, reducing the cost of capital and labour and moving faster on stalled projects and early passage of the GST Bill.
In case of dumping of goods into India, some defensive measures could be taken, the industry felt.
The industry also sought a “bankruptcy code”, which is in the final stages of drafting, and changing the definition of corruption in the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Apart from the heads of industry associations, business leaders, including Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group chairman Cyrus P Mistry, Aditya Birla Group head Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel and ITC chief YC Deveshwar, attended the meeting.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya as well as Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagriya were also present.
The Prime Minister met India Inc, bankers, economists along with some of his key ministers in a three-hour meeting to brainstorm on the current volatile global economic situation arising out of the slowdown in China and the subsequent impact on equity and currency markets.
“The Prime Minister has said that industry must take risk and increase investments... we must go out and invest. Industry has a role to play,” CII president Sumit Mazumder said after the meeting. Many industry representatives sought a cut in interest rates which could revive investments.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the thrust of the meeting was that India was relatively less impacted except the shadow on markets and the feeling was India must utilise this opportunity.
Jaitley said the private sector must increase its investments since it had more risk-taking ability. The brainstorming also noted that since India was a net importer of crude and commodities, which have fallen the most, it stands to gain and must build on this advantage.
In his presentation, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian pointed out that the cost of building infrastructure would come down as the prices of coal, cement and steel had fallen sharply.
The Prime Minister emphasised on job creation, boosting low-cost manufacturing and felt the strength of economy lay in its huge human resource, size of domestic market and that it was not entirely dependent on export.
He also underscored the role of small and medium enterprises sector and utilising MNERGA funds as a possible tool for skill development and MUDRA Bank for supporting the unorganised sector, Jaitley said.
The Finance Minister pointed out that the accent was on taking steps to further strengthen the economy. Among suggestions received at the meeting to boost the economy was to focus on agriculture, which will have a cascading effect and also play a role in increasing consumption.
The industry also suggested expediting the investment process, enhancing ease of doing business, de-stressing the stressed sectors such as steel and textiles, reducing the cost of capital and labour and moving faster on stalled projects and early passage of the GST Bill.
In case of dumping of goods into India, some defensive measures could be taken, the industry felt.
The industry also sought a “bankruptcy code”, which is in the final stages of drafting, and changing the definition of corruption in the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Apart from the heads of industry associations, business leaders, including Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group chairman Cyrus P Mistry, Aditya Birla Group head Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel and ITC chief YC Deveshwar, attended the meeting.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya as well as Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagriya were also present.
