Calling on India Inc to strengthen its partnership with the government to build “brand India”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked industry to increase its risk-taking appetite and step up investments, especially in research and development.
Mr. Modi was addressing the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) that was attended by Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran, Kotak Mahindra Bank MD & CEO Uday Kotak, Larsen & Toubro MD & CEO S.N. Subramaniam, and Bharat Forge CMD Baba Kalyani, among others.
The PM said, “A vehicle cannot run only on one wheel… Hence, the industry needs to increase its natural tendency to take risks. To achieve Atmanirbhar Bharat, we need to adopt new and difficult routes. The country has lots of expectations from the industry to increase the rate of investment and employment in India.”
He added that for a self-reliant India, investments in R&D need to increase manifold, which is not possible with government efforts alone. “For the success of Atmanirbhar Bharat, a big responsibility rests on Indian industries…There is a need for partnership with industry for this. Our aim is to make brand India strong…and for that we need to strengthen our partnership,” he said.
Noting that the Indian economy is now gaining momentum again, the PM said industry should take advantage of the environment that has been created for development in the country. “The government is with you, with your every effort,” he said.
To minimise and rationalise the public sector’s footprints, decisive decisions are being taken via the new policy for PSE (public sector enterprises). In this, a lot of excitement and energy should be seen from industry, he added.
“Today’s new India is ready to move along with the new world. India, which was once apprehensive of foreign investment, is today welcoming every kind of investment. India, whose tax policies once used to cause disappointment among investors, today has the world’s most competitive corporate tax and faceless tax system,” Mr. Modi said.
He said there was a time when everything foreign was considered better, but this psychology has changed and citizens today prefer products that are made in India. “It is not necessary that the company is Indian, but today every Indian wants to adopt products made in India,” he said, adding that industry has to align its policy and strategy to this.
On retrospective taxation, he said the government recently decided to do away with it, “correcting the mistakes of the past. The way this decision is being appreciated in the industry, I am sure this will further strengthen the trust between industry and government.”
Speaking at the same session, Mr. Kalyani suggested a five-pronged approach, including augmenting design and innovation capability, establishing end-to-end value chains, participation in global agendas for climate action, reducing cost of doing business, and focus on indigenous research, innovation and IPR (intellectual property rights), while Mr. Kotak said there is a need to increase financing capabilities to realise the dream of high growth. “An atmanirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat needs an atmanirbhar financial sector. The markets should be well-regulated but free to operate,” Mr. Kotak said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chandrasekaran called for making India a $5 trillion economy by 2031, and working towards enhancing technological capabilities in areas such as electronics and 5G, developing a skill ecosystem and creating protocols and partnerships with countries for cooperation in technology, “so that the decade belongs to India in the technological sectors”.
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