• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Our Bureau

CHENNAI, May 3

AMONG the many committees that the Confederation of Indian Industry has set up is one on social integration. The idea for setting up such a committee may have come out of the violence in Gujarat, but the committee will not confine itself to Gujarat alone, according to Mr Ashok Soota, CII President.

The committee would work towards preserving the social fabric of the country. Moreover, it would help determine how much business should get involved in matters outside of it.

To a question at a press conference here today, Mr Soota said the real impact of the communal violence in Gujarat on industry would be known only after a year. Foreign direct investment decisions were long-term ones, he said, and pointed out that these decisions would not get affected by short-term events unless they were prolonged. On the positive side, production in the State had not been affected.

He said the CII had taken up a study jointly with McKinsey on the country's manufacturing competitiveness vis-à-vis China. The study would focus on what the Central and the State Governments needed to do to attract investment in manufacturing; what China had done to make manufacturing attractive; and, how to generate more jobs out of manufacturing.

Generating more jobs in the manufacturing sector was all the more important if the country was to create 14-15 million jobs every year. The services sector alone could not generate such a large number of jobs and, hence, the manufacturing sector, as also agriculture, needed to be given a boost.

Mr Soota's first visit abroad after taking over as the CII President would be to China. He would be a guest of the Chinese Government and the visit was being organised by the Chinese Council for Promotion of International Trade to mark the 50th year of the country's participation in global trade.

Mr Soota said indications were that the global economy was recovering slowly, led again by the US. Europe and Japan, the two other large economies, were still sluggish but generally economic recovery in Europe and Japan lagged the US by 6-9 months. The CII expected a steady growth in global demand.

He said that the many initiatives being taken included coming out with a quality stamp for Indian IT services, for which the CII would work with the Nasscom. This would help to certify the quality of services being provided.

The CII felt that the next stage of the reforms process would have to involve the States, which needed to do several things including switching over to a value-added tax regime.

Mr Soota said economic issues were being driven to the background with the focus so much on politics. A number of economic legislations were pending and the CII hoped to work with the Government on this issue.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
India major user of anti-dumping measures

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line