The Hindu Business Line : CII against job quotas in pvt sector

Mr Y.C. Deveshwar, President, CII, flanked by Mr R. Seshasayee, Vice-President (left), and Mr N. Srinivasan, Director General, at a news conference in the Capital on Tuesday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , May 31

THE Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) today said it was opposed to any mandatory provision for reserving jobs for weaker sections in the private sector.

It predicted a 7.2 per cent GDP growth for the economy in the current fiscal and stressed on sustainable development and employment generation in the country.

Pointing out that the private sector must help in creating more jobs, the CII President, Mr Y.C. Deveshwar, said, "We are not in agreement with reservation."

India Inc was in agreement with the "objectives of reservation", Mr Deveshwar said and called for a "long-term productive strategy by closer coordination between the private sector and the Government, to facilitate job creation."

He said that CII would focus on sectors which are employment intensive as well as those which are not employment intensive by themselves but have forward and backward linkages that generate employment.

"We have identified textiles and garments; leather and leather products; food processing; tourism, paper; knowledge-based industries; and gems and jewellery as employment intensive sectors," he added.

CII would also be opening three new offices in Jammu, Shimla and Siliguri in addition to their 45 existing offices, focussing on the North East.

In 2005-06, CII expects India to grow at 7.2 per cent, with the agriculture sector projected to achieve three per cent growth, while industry and services are likely to grow at 8.1 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively.

For sustainable development, CII would focus on employment and employability, rural economy, infrastructure, nurturing and renewing social capital and governance. Specifically, CII would work towards having a single market, which included moving to a uniform goods and service tax; tax moderation, reforms and widening of tax base and rationalising of import tariff structure to encourage value addition in India.

Mr Deveshwar termed the presence of Left parties, a major constituent of the UPA Government at the Centre, a "major challenge" given their objection to privatisation and FDI.

For rural economy development, he called for improving farm productivity through strengthening of extension services, greater use of IT, improving and expanding irrigation networks and promoting market-led crop diversification.

When asked about private sector investment in the rural economy, he said that the Government "needed to improve rural infrastructure such as roads, telecom, power, storages and warehouses and market yards in order to attract investment."

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