India Inc to present wish list to PM to tide over crisis

NEW DELHI: India Inc will present its wish list at a meeting of industry leaders convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday to discuss the impact of global meltdown and explore options to bolster the economy.

Preparing for the meeting, apex industry associations Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) held the meetings of their core group, including past presidents, to flag the issues that they should take up with the PM.

Ratan Tata, Anand Mahindra, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, K P Singh, Sunil Bharti Mittal and Deepak Parikh are among those expected to attend the meeting - two days after RBI decided to inject another Rs 85,000 crore into the financial system by revising downward short-term lending rate and key deposit requirements for banks.

High on the agenda of the chambers is the spurting interest rates and drying up of liquidity for the industry, which recorded a dismal growth of 1.3 per cent in August this year.

With the RBI providing Rs 2,65,000 crore in the last one month, one of the industry's main demands has largely been met. However, industry sources feel more was required since the overnight inter-bank lending rates are still quite high.
However, the industry leaders would demand immediate steps by the government at the meeting, that comes a day before the Finance Minister P Chidambaram's conference with heads of PSU banks where he would ask them to consider softening of interest rates.

While the government has given assurances on the safety of Indian banks, high interest rates, which according to CII President K V Kamath have surged to 'high teens', have particularly impacted sectors like real estate and automobile.