THINK DEEPLY
| Date :08-Jan-2020 |
THERE are reasons to believe that Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s meeting with top industry captains of India ahead of the Union Budget would produce some hopeful signs of a closer-than-ever cooperation between the Government and India Inc for the common goal of rejuvenation of the Indian economy in the coming times. This was not for the first time that such a connect was established as Mr. Modi always believed in the concept of working together on an issue as important as the revival of the national economy. Yet, it is not possible to miss the importance India Inc seems to have attached to this latest interaction. In fact, it would be interesting to wait for the outcome of the meeting of the Prime Minister with the country's top corporate bosses.
This meeting took place at an interesting cross-roads of the country’s economic journey. The past few months have brought some not-so-good news about the economy with the GDP growth rate slide or growing extent of industrial job-loss or slowing down of overseas investment in India ...! The Government was not in a denial mode and was willing to take a studied look at those depleting parameters. But its leading lights did go on a spree of aggressive explanation of the cause-and-effect trajectory of the slowdown. The Government did not deny the reality, but also had certain theoretical approach to sorting things out. As this was happening, India Inc waited patiently to understand the nature of the Government’s response. It did have its own issues to tackle, but showed good patience in arriving at conclusion about the specifics of national economic revival.
An interesting aspect of the overall response of industry and business to the slow-down was two-layered. While the top-end corporates waited patiently for things to assume fathomable shape, the lower categories felt the heat more intensely and even went belly-up in good numbers. The response of that category was, naturally, confused since the people engaged in that activity could not actually fashion their thoughts appropriately. The meeting of the Prime Minister with corporate bosses has come at this critical cross-roads. India Inc must have spoken up on issues unreservedly and the Prime Minister, too, must have listened to them patiently and sympathetically. Seemingly, both stood at the opposite ends of the spectrum of economic thought and action.
But as is well known by now, Mr. Narendra Modi has often taken an accommodative approach possibly to incorporate diverse views to fashion a collective national response. There is little doubt that in a few days to come, the Government would formulate its policy line before it goes for the Union Budget. The actual issues before the Indian economy, however, are quite complex and need a comprehensive response. This is so because of the massively broad range of stake-holders the nation has accepted as critical to the economy. This broad range stems, of course, from political concerns, without which there is no other go. Poverty is certainly an issue, but the business of the political element dominating the Direct-Benefit-Transfer idea has only added to the burden on the national exchequer, for which the Government does not seem to have an agreeable solution.
But India Inc’s greater concern relates to the revival of the market demand, and the Government will have to respond to it forcefully. In fact, the process of recovery will require much deep thinking beyond political tall-talk. Confronted with multiple challenges, the Government will have to design a comprehensive approach to handling not just the slow-down, which is a temporary phase, but also creating a policy-architecture to recognise and accommodate interests of all stake-holders avoiding to play to the gallery. For, upon this process will depend the actual recovery.