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The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has asked India Inc to play a catalytic role in building consensus on economic reforms. He also asserted that the UPA Government could not be accused of not trying to push through reforms.
“It is true that sometimes the process of reforms gets overtaken by political events. This is in the very nature of our democracy. For this process to be speeded up, the Indian enterprise has to help build consensus across our diverse social and political space to benefit from the opportunities before us,” Mr Mukherjee said at FICCI's 84th Annual General Meeting here on Wednesday.
On its part, corporate India urged the Government not to judge industry by “deviants”. They also called for change in the relationship between Government and industry. There is need to rebuild trust to remove hurdles inhibiting growth, the outgoing FICCI President, Mr Harsh Mariwala, said.
“Government and industry are partners and must work on the basis of trust. Sadly, today trust has eroded on all fronts. It is important to rebuild trust,” he said.
‘Policy paralysis'
After the unearthing of alleged scams in telecom, Commonwealth Games, the relationship between Government and industry had touched a low. There is a perception that economic growth is faltering on account of ‘policy paralysis' and lack of legislative changes to push reforms. Global uncertainty has also not helped and India's growth has slipped below the 9 per cent levels seen a few years ago. Mr Mukherjee asked corporates to demonstrate willingness to marry their economic interests with larger social responsibilities. He said the Government had, post the August 1 meeting with industrialists, tried to take forward some doable suggestions (given by industry).
“Unfortunately, progress of reforms on some fronts, especially FDI in multi-brand retail and some legislative amendments, have not seen smooth passage. But we cannot be accused of not trying,” he added.
Mr Mariwala said the India story was still alive and that “we are in a sweet spot”. He admitted that industry had to self-regulate and internalise business ethics. It is also crucial that the Government gives the private sector credit for creating wealth and value for the country, he added.
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