India Inc, corporates laud Narendra Modi govt's economic revival plan

Corporate czars, both from India and foreign nations, reposed faith in India story on the last day of the India Economic Summit in the national capital on Thursday. Praising the "effective leadership and new energy" of the Narendra Modi government and a "clear road map" for economic revival, industry captains said that people have sensed that the business environment is turning friendly.

"The government came across as having new energy. People sensed that there is a new agenda as well a business-friendly agenda," Mahindra & Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra said. Etihad Airways President and Chief Executive Officer James Hogan said, "There is effective leadership from the government and the commercial sector. I leave convinced that there is a very clear road map moving forward."

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said that though there are no big-bang reforms, "policymaking is moving forward and there have been several incremental steps across the spectrum with the objective of doing business easier".

The three-day summit, organised by Geneva-based World Economic Forum and CII, also discussed the 'performance and promises' of the new government, whose ministers on their part promised better days ahead for both corporates and the poor.

The business leaders also observed that there are many challenges ahead and the government's extensive agenda for action includes infrastructure, land, labour, trade facilitation, infrastructure-particularly the power sector-subsidies and the allocation of natural resources.

In the opening plenary, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had stressed the government's commitment to wide-ranging reforms.

Other ministers, including Power Minister Piyush Goyal, stressed the government's determination to unblock bottlenecks that impede India from returning to the higher growth level that the economy had achieved before the global crisis.