The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the sharp decline in the Indian economy this year has lowered the growth forecast in the world economy. On this statement of the IMF, business giants of India have said that the medium and long-term outlook will have to be taken care of. Business veterans said that they have faith in the economy in the long term, but to handle the economy, economic and policy reforms have to be accelerated.
The IMF has also reduced India's growth estimate to 4.8 percent for this financial year i.e. 2019-20. IMF says that global growth is coming down due to India's falling GDP growth rate. During the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in the Swiss city, many business and industry veterans spoke to India Today on this issue.
The veterans also questioned that India was not able to present itself as a 'One Nation One Team' in the WEF, a question that was actually raised due to the separation of state and central representatives.
These veterans included Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani, CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee, Kirloskar Systems CMD Vikram Kirloskar and Cerams CEO Adar Poonawala.
CP Gurnani said that it is indeed very unusual that the growth rate, which used to be 8-10 percent, has now come to the level of 4-5 percent and it is impacting the global growth. So now the emphasis should be on what action should be taken. He said, 'What is more important is not what we are doing at the moment, but what the outlook is in the medium and long term.'
Woe to the bad days of the auto industry!
When we questioned Vikram Kirloskar about the ongoing discussion about India's growth rate, he said that India is now going through some structural changes. He said, "People are now looking for more competitive products that are more affordable." About the slowness of the automobile sector, Kirloskar said that now it is on the path of industry reform. He said, "I see a lot of optimism for the auto market in the next two-three quarters."
On the policy environment, Gurnani said that today everyone wants to do business in India. Now global firms want to expand in India, but they are worried about the lack of judicial reform in India. He cited Satyam's legal dispute which is still pending, while the matter has been settled globally.
He said, 'We got 60 international legal disputes and 40 domestic cases inherited in Satyam's case. Within 18 months, all international disputes were resolved, even after a decade, no major issues have been resolved in India.
Citing the recent order of the Supreme Court on telecom companies, he said that judicial reform should be a priority this year. Significantly, giving a big blow to the telecom sector, the Supreme Court in its order has asked them to deposit the outstanding Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of about Rs 93,000 crore by January 23 and the court also rejected the reconsideration petition of the companies.
Business giants also raised questions about the fact that India could not present itself as a 'One Nation One Team' in the WEF. Representatives of the Center and the state are seen differently. The delegation arriving in Davos from India consists of two Congress and one BJP Chief Minister. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Shipping, Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Mansukh Mandavia are from the Central Government.
Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), said, 'The story of India is really a story of states. I agree that we should come together. This would have presented a strong image of India.