Kris Gopalakrishnan calls for actions to revive growth

NEW DELHI: Investors remain apprehensive about India amidst uncertain and disruptive policies as there is a real chance that growth could slip lower than the decade-low of 5% achieved in 2012-13, CII President Kris Gopalakrishnan has said.

"When the rest of the world is improving, we are starting to go in the opposite direction... if we don't take corrective action, the potential exists that the growth rate will further slow down," Gopalakrishnan told ET before Monday's meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council for trade and industry.

"We have no time to lose, elections or no elections," he said, pushing for a greater sense of urgency from the government to salvage the economy as FDI reforms have failed to change India's floundering economic narrative.

"It is a tricky time and the elections make it more difficult . We are now unable to predict when we will get back to 8% growth," the CII chief said, stressing that though there are several suggestions to fix the economy's woes, there is still not a sense of urgency about implementing them.

"We need a sense of urgency to get results. People need to see there's action, so there must be co-ordination across ministries to ensure the government presents a simultaneous response," he explained.

"Everything seems to end in a controversy, which is not a good sign. For whatever reason (be it Jet-Etihad or retail FDI), it ends in a controversy. Investors are naturally scared as they don't want to become the centre of a contentious issue ," he said, referring to the government's attempts at increasing foreign direct investment flows.

Explaining the reason FDI in multi-brand retail is yet to find any takers, the CII chief said that there is an apprehension that when detailed negotiations happen on the ground, there will be a lot of "push-back."

"There is a serious concern about consistency and continuity of policy," he said. "Two years ago, we were growing at 8.5%. Nobody saw this dramatic slowdown coming . It was very unexpected. That is what has caused uncertainty and concern," Gopalakrishnan said.