'GenX of India, Inc. are the children of reforms'

AT Nariman Point, we celebrated an August 15 today: Fifteen years of an august movement called economic reforms, billed by the Famous Five, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as the second Independence movement, here in the heart of Mumbai with the Who’s Who of India Inc as witnesses.

Giving away the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence, 2006, Manmohan Singh — the man who unleashed the liberalisation wave in 1991 — began by quoting futurist Alvin Toffler, as his five-member dream team including finance minister P Chidambaram, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, RBI governor YV Reddy and chairman of the PM’s economic advisory council C Rangarajan looked on: “Eighteen years make a generation...by that count, our reforms are not exactly a generation old.” And he drove the point home quoting what Mao Tse Tung once told Henry Kissinger when asked about the impact of the French Revolution: “It’s too early to tell.”

However, the cautious pragmatism soon gave way to bullishness as the PM highlighted the robustness of a young economy that’s been growing at above 8% rates for the past four years. “Today, the next generation of India Inc are the children of reforms, not necesarily children of businessmen,” he said, amid cheers from the audience.

Future talk apart, it was also a day when the country’s economic think tank made a pledge to tread the most tricky terrain of reforms. The PM fielded questions that India Inc hurled at him at the function. “There are difficulties but we have not given up hope... The FM and me have been meeting the Left leaders every 2-3 months. But I have not given up hope,” Mr Singh answered Gautam Singhania on a tough question on the future of labour reforms.

Next was Naina Lal Kidwai who quizzed the PM on the contentious issue of SEZs. And pat came the reply: “SEZ as a policy has come to stay... in recent weeks certain concerns have been raised, and some of them will be taken on board.”

There was also a wake-up call to Corporate India, for whom it was payback time. “You are the beneficiaries of a more open economy and an open society. You have benefitted from what our country has been able to give us. It is time you contributed in your own way in building a new India,” he told the 1,000-plus audience. Treat your wealth as a societal trust and manage it for the welfare of the nation at large, he said.

He fell back on one of his oft-quoted lines he first said in his maiden budget: “Markets serve those who are part of it. Millions of our fellow citizens are still deprived of the benefits of a fast growing economy... I admit there was a relative neglect of investment in agriculture, education and healthcare. Agriculture and employment generation can be ignored at our own peril.”

The ET Award winners honoured by the PM were Mukesh Ambani, N Vaghul, Mallika Srinivasan, S Ramadorai for TCS, Azim Premji for the Premji Foundation, HK Mittal, Arvind Dham. Pepsico CEO and president Indra Nooyi’s mother collected the honour on her behalf.

The dignitaries who attended the function included Maharashtra Governor SM Krishna and chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh apart from the creme de la creme of India Inc.

Raymond is the presenting sponsor of The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence, in association with The Oberoi Hotels & Resorts. TIMES NOW is our television partner.