PM Modi , industry brainstorm on achieving $5-trillion target

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi met a number of business leaders and entrepreneurs over the past week to seek feedback on various sectors as well as suggestions on policy measures to boost growth and accelerate the drive toward a $5-trillion economy. More such meetings are planned in the days ahead.

“Each of these meetings lasted more than two hours and saw a candid exchange of ideas as to how the government and industry can work together to improve business sentiment, investment and boost creation of jobs,” said a person aware of the deliberations.

Those who have attended these meetings so far include Uday Kotak, CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Rajnish Kumar, chairman, SBI; Aditya Puri, MD, HDFC Bank; IT industry veteran TV Mohandas Pai; ex-finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia; Tech Mahindra MD CP Gurnani; Intel India general manager Nivruti Rai and TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan.


Sectoral Meetings
These were one-on-one sectoral meetings with the prime minister that enabled him to get information about the ground situation, said a person who attended one of them.

“He wanted to listen, and encouraged us to come forward with recommendations for the economy,” said Gurnani of Tech Mahindra. “Some of the specific suggestions were around setting up an AI university, judicial reforms, etc.”

Not many government officials were present at these meetings to facilitate a frank discussion.

“He told us he had not invited us to praise him or the government but to hear our views and what’s missing, what could be done and how to unlock and accelerate growth and development,” said Saurabh Srivastava, chairman of the Indian Angel Network. “It was not a defensive meeting. He was not justifying anything and told us to feel free to be critical.”

India’s economic growth slowed to a six-year low of 4.5% in the September quarter and is likely to end the current fiscal at around 5%.

The government has announced a number of measures, including a sharp cut in corporate tax, to revive the economy. It’s looking to boost GDP to $5 trillion by 2025 from about $2.8 trillion now.

“We made some suggestions about why the slowdown happened and what measures need to be undertaken and what is lacking... We felt that he is very focussed on getting the economy back on track and he surely will,” said Mohandas Pai.

The PM has so far met over 60 entrepreneurs and business leaders from sectors such as fastmoving consumer goods (FMCG), banking and finance, renewable energy, diamond, retail, textiles, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and startups and technology.

Others who attended the meetings include Sangita Reddy, joint managing director, Apollo Hospitals Group; Jyotsna Suri, chairperson and managing director, Bharat Hotels; Sanjay Lalbhai, CMD, Arvind Ltd; Sandip Somany, vice chairman, Hindustan Sanitaryware & Industries Ltd; Balkrishan Goenka, chairman, Welspun Group; Pankaj Patel, CMD, Cadila Healthcare and former Sebi chief UK Sinha.

ET had reported on Tuesday that representatives of Samsung, Apple, Bosch, domestic handset maker Lava and lobby group India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) had sought incentives to make manufacturing in India as competitive as in China and Vietnam.

“The PM understands that mobile design and manufacturing alone has the potential to add over $520 billion to our GDP by 2025, besides creating 20 million new jobs,” said Hari Om Rai, CMD, Lava International. “He is determined to make India the global hub for mobile design and manufacturing.”