Maruti's RC Bhargava makes strong case for trust in private sector

Trust in the private sector is the way to go for India in its quest for the next level in economic growth, Maruti Suzuki India Chairman RC Bhargava said today.

"The way forward for India on the road to growth and development is to rely on private sector," he said.

"After all these 60-65 years of going through government and public sector, I have no doubt in my mind that the way forward for India is to rely on the private sector," he told the media at an event.


Bhargava credited Modi government for its trust in the private sector. The government has encouraged industry to play a leading role in economic and industrial growth and job creation, he added.

He praised Modi government's privatisation programme, including that of Air India. He also welcomed various other reforms like ease of doing business, insolvency and bankruptcy code, GST implementation and lowering corporate taxes.

The Maruti Suzuki chief's comments came in response to a question on how he thought things would play out for Indian industry, particularly auto, in the next 10-20 years.

Bhargava, however, was quick to add that the private sector is not perfect, and that it has its own faults and blemishes.

"I'm not for a moment saying that private sector is perfect. If you balance the negatives and the positives of both private sector and public sector, the balance comes up far more in favour of the private sector than the public sector," he noted.

Be that as it may, the public sector is not the way to go, he said, as "it has not been efficient because of its constitutional restrictions, legal structure and the way the controls and supervision happen."

The public sector is handicapped by the environment that it operates in, he said. There are exceptions at the individual levels, but the system as a whole has too many constraints, he added.

He said the reforms being brought by the current government gives him cause for optimism: "All these things suddenly made me think that look, India's changing, India's become different again, there's hope for the future."

Things weren't like this a few years ago, Bhargava reminisced. "I had become quite pessimistic about any kind of industrial growth in India. Various things used to be said, but nothing would happen on the ground."

He explained the earlier situation by way of an example. A few years ago, when he was in the committee set up by the then Planning Commission to increase industrial competitiveness, many discussions were held and many reports put together over many meetings, but nothing eventually happened.

As regards auto industry outlook for India, Bhargava said 2022-23 will be a record year, as smoothening of semiconductor supplies has streamlined things significantly.

"I think production in India and the car industry in 2022-23 will be the highest level. I'm not talking about Maruti alone, I'm talking about the car industry," Bhargava asserted.


Inputs from agencies