Need to improve overall governance, says CII chief

NEW DELHI: Worried over the spate of scams involving corporate houses, industry chamber CII today made a case for strengthening institutions and promote transparency to check them.

"The industry associations have a role to play. It is to improve the institutions, improve the governance, improve the justice system in the country. Overall governance, we need to improve,," the newly elected CII President Kris Gopalakrishnan told PTI.

He was responding to a query on the role industry associations can play to prevent corrupt practices in the backdrop of scams in coal and telecom sectors and allegations of money laundering levelled against leading private sector banks including ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.

"We need to make sure that there is a level playing field, that is the role of the industry associations," said Gopalakrishnan, who is also Infosys Executive co-chairman.

He said government institutions looking at things like investigations and justice "need to do their role"

When asked whether the chambers are doing enough to check corruption, he said: "No because it is still there, we have to do more".

On what the government should do to deal with corporate corruption, he said the effort should be to create a fair set of policies, a level playing field and improve transparency.

"...it is about creating a fair set of policies, creating a level playing field, creating an environment where there is a open and transparent mechanism to look at things like natural resources," he added.

To boost the country's economic growth, he urged the government to implement Goods and Services Tax and Direct Tax Code.

"There is a need to look at all the big stalled projects. The government should also have to improve the business environment of the country to enhance investments," he said.

As per the CSO estimates, Indian economy is expected to grow by 5 per cent, the lowest rate in a decade, due to poor performance of manufacturing, agriculture and the services sector. In the third quarter ended December 2012, the GDP grew by just 4.5 per cent.