Modi government brainstorms with India Inc: Key takeaways

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, FM Arun Jaitley and CEA Arvind Subramanian along with RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and economists met key industrialists of India Inc to discuss the ongoing global economic turmoil, Chinese slowdown and the future growth prospects of the Indian economy.

PM Modi asked India Inc to increase risk-taking appetite and step up investments even as industry leaders pressed for interest rate cut and more policy action to improve ease of doing business. Modi called bankers and industrialists to brainstorm on how India can manage global economic turbulence, including opportunities for Asia's third-largest economy in China's market and growth woes.

The industry leaders who attended the brain storming session with Modi on 'Recent global events: Opportunities for India' were Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group head Cyrus P Mistry, Aditya Birla Group head Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel and ITC chief Y C Deveshwar.

Briefing the media about the brainstorming session, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley highlighted some of the key takeaways from the meeting.

> Suggestions made for de-stressing steel, textile sectors

> Some defensive measures were suggested for countering dumping

> Bankruptcy code in final stages of drafting

> Firmly believe that India will be less impacted by global turmoil. India's fundamentals are reasonably strong.

> Global turmoil will have an impact on equity and currency markets

> It was agreed that the agriculture sector requires focus

CEA Arvind Subramanian Arvind Subramanian made a short presentation during the meeting, highlighting how India is relatively better placed amidst the global crisis. Some of the salient features of his presentation, as highlighted by Subramanian were:

> Era of relatively cheap oil likely

> China turmoil a recent deveolpment. India will remain realtively attractive

> China's slowdown will have less impact on us

> India has untapped potential, especially in infrastructure. Cost of building infrastructure will go down because all inputs to the sector are much cheaper now. This is consistent with the government's plan to up public spending.

> Infrastructure is important for manufacturing and the value added chain

> Many corportaes such as Siemens and Xiaomi are committing investment to India. Some of them are investing as a hedge against the China slowdown