Don't blame the govt for slowdown. Harsh Goenka thinks India Inc needs to change first

NEW DELHI: The world's economy is heading for a mess, and the common refrain is that a recession is inevitable.

Back home, too, the murmurs are becoming only stronger. On Thursday, at the 3th Hero Mindmine Summit in the national capital, Chief Economic Advisor K Subramanian criticised the private sector, and said that the government shouldn't be asked to intervene every time businesses go through a bad phase.

A day later, industrialist Harsh Goenka, too seemed in sync with him.


The Chairman of RPG Group took to Twitter on Friday to tell his 1.5 million followers that blaming the government for all our woes was not the correct approach to take. Goenka, one of the most active India Inc bosses on the micro-blogging site, urged industry to shed its present attitude and think new solutions that will help in the long run.


While it is important for the government to take initiatives to stimulate demand, the 61-year-old businessman believes that real responsibility lies with India Inc. And the need of the hour, he feels, is only possible through 'more innovation and change'. The seasoned businessman - whose corporate turf ranges from tyres to infrastructure to IT - mentioned in his tweet that India can have healthier businesses through innovative solutions that will help have "sharper cost efficiencies and prepare ourselves better for global volatility and changing business models."

Meanwhile, Shamika Ravi, director of think-tank Brookings India, also shared her concerns on the structural slowdown on Thursday.

In her tweet, she mentioned that India needs more reforms, and not 'mere tinkering'. She stressed on the need for a national growth strategy with time bound goals. "Leaving economy to the finance ministry is like leaving the growth of a firm to its accounts department," she wrote, garnering mixed response from her followers.


India Inc leaders, meanwhile, have raised the issue with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and sought a stimulus to boost the ongoing slowdown. Last week, official sources confirmed to a news agency that the Finance Ministry is planning to give a booster to the industry that includes a slew of financial measures, ranging from tax cuts, subsidies and other incentives.

Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch confirmed that the recession is likely in the next nine to 12 months.

At the South-South and Triangular Cooperation summit in Delhi on Thursday, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal confirmed that the world economy will fall into a recession which will spare no country.