Prime Minister Narendra Modi met top business leaders and CEOs on Monday in the run-up to the budget to discuss measures aimed at boosting the country’s investment climate. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is scheduled to present the Union budget for 2022-23 on February 1, and commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal were also present at the meeting.
During the interaction, PM Modi heard suggestions from leading chief executives of about 20 companies across industries, including banking, infrastructure, steel, automobiles, telecom, consumer goods, textiles, renewables, hospitality, tech, healthcare, space and electronics. Modi said the government “is firmly committed to take initiatives” that would give impetus to economic progress. While the government would support the industry, he also said it wanted industry to grow, continue to invest and take risks.
“The PM said that just like the country aspires for a podium finish at the Olympics, the country also wants to see our industries among the top five of the world in every sector, and this is something for which we should collectively work towards,” an official statement from the government said.
Also, the PM called on the corporate sector “to invest more in areas such as agriculture and food processing,” and about the shifting focus on natural farming.
According to a separate statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Modi discussed efforts undertaken by the government to usher in more reforms, the future potential of initiatives like PM GatiShakti, and steps taken to reduce unnecessary compliance burden. The prime minister’s maiden pre-budget session with industry hotshots comes in the backdrop of rising Covid-19 cases with the new variant Omicron threatening economic recovery.
A senior industry source told Economic Times, “this is one of the many interactions being done by the PM ahead of the budget to receive inputs and suggestions from the private sector.”
The CEOs who attended the meeting said they were emboldened and encouraged by the PM’s vision and said that the industry would put its best foot forward in realising it.
They also told the PM that while industry continued to work on vaccinations, the government needed to come up with a view on booster doses and provide a roadmap for industry to transition to a greener future.
The interaction also underlined the importance of knowledge-intensive and tech-intensive growth in addition to capital-intensive growth and on steps to further ring in ease of doing business.
According to the ET report, Uday Kotak, chief executive of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said following the meeting that the time had come for the banking and financial sector to think about scale without fear. The sector, he said, was ready to support industry across SIDI, or ‘sustainability, inclusion, digital and infrastructure’.
Maruti Suzuki MD Kenichi Ayukawa said industry was committed to making India a manufacturing hub for the world, increasing exports and localisation. Most foreign investors, he said, like to invest in India as they have faith in the policies initiated by the prime minister.
