State governments should work with the Centre to improve “ease of doing business”, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, said here on Wednesday.

According to him, the Centre “has done its bit” on improving the ease of doing business. However, now it is for the State governments to work in tandem with the Centre, especially considering the “number that the BJP has”.

“I think the Centre has done its bit when it comes to ease of doing business. It is now for the States to work with the Centre on that front,” he said during an interactive session organised by the Ladies Study Group.

Education needs reforms

Birla maintained there was need for reforms in the education sector. The sector, he felt, was highly regulated.

“Education needs a reforms. The sector continues to be highly regulated. It needs to go,” he added. Focus should also be on green norms or the environment. “I think we need to think of what sort of planet we are leaving for our next generation. There should be some focus on a green India and on environment norms,” Birla said.

Maintaining that he was hopeful of the “investment cycle” picking up in the coming days, Birla referred to the BJP’s election manifesto which promised ₹10,00,0000 crore investments into infrastructure and allied sectors. The election promise was in the right direction and was required if growth in the country was to be in the range of 8-10 per cent, he said.

‘Sops’ for companies

One of the things he was looking forward to in the upcoming Budget was “sops and incentives” for companies, which would bring-in investments.

“If you want to build an economy that grows at around 8-10 per cent annually, you have to make investments in traditional infrastructure such as roads and highways and soft infrastructure like health and education,” Birla said.

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