|
What a change a year can make - to confidence, to expectation, to anticipation. When we came together at the CEO Roundtable last year, the economy was in rigor mortis, a majority government seemed an impossibility and concern abounded within us on how growth for industry, for the nation at large, was going to return to a higher growth trajectory.
Today, there are two quarters of growth, even if higher just by a tad, over the previous year, inflation is at an almost impossible low, and a majority BJP-led government at the Centre is striving to pull growth into central focus whilst balancing multiple stakeholder interests, and trying to expand its own internal talent pool.
The return back to growth is not easy. The Indian economy has structural weaknesses, dragged down further by a lack of progressive policy in the last five years and serious fiscal weakness on account of a bloated and inefficient welfare bill. There is simply too much for any government to do, but time is of the essence - both for its own sake as political capital starts to run out, and for India at large. Whether this government will live up to its promises remains to be seen. The start has been sketchy - clearer, more sophisticated foreign policy than expected, a categorical focus on growth through speedier project approvals and the slow start to break away from subsidies. Big reform is however still pending and changes on the ground are slower than many had hoped. Its weakness in the Rajya Sabha notwithstanding, and despite the reality of control today resting more in India's states than at the Centre, the Indian government will need to accelerate policy to enable changes on the ground. The macro environment is benign - a lucky, lucky thing - and it must maximise this opportunity and ensure that industry is enabled in the immediate term, and skill development prioritised for the long term.
If it gets a few key issues right, then industry and India's people need little else. Growth is snatched back - our possibilities are limitless, - “aseemit with a young, buoyant population, immensely valuable intellectual capital and globally competitive industry that has often grown despite the best efforts of any government. The 2014 CEO Roundtable aimed to identify the pillars of returning growth - as an economy, and as industry, and seeked to highlight both risk, and opportunity. Each of the participants as business leaders embodied the capability that India must expand on - may their abilities always be - aseemi, may their teams stand for the limitless potential that is India, and may we get the wind beneath our wings that we are waiting for.
|
|
|
