| Saturday , September 26 , 2015 |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150926/jsp/frontpage/story_44719.jsp#.VgZRQFSqqko
Not an easy place to do business, Sir- Fast reform sought, fast decision offered |
| Our Bureau and Agencies |
MODI MEETS CHIEFS WHO WERE ‘NOT SHY’  Narendra Modi poses for a group photo after an interaction with CEOs in New York on Thursday. (PTI)
Served at the Waldorf in New York with a laundry list of why India is "not an easy place to do business" and gently nudged on faster reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised faster decisions. Modi also conceded that he knew that "the world is not going to wait for us", according to a newsletter from Alan Murray, the editor of Fortune, the business magazine which hosted a dinner last night for the Prime Minister and US chief executives of companies such as Ford, Cisco, IBM, Lockheed, Marriott, Merck, Pepsi and Dow. ( Fortune is published in India through an agreement between Time Inc and ABP Ltd, which owns The Telegraph.) Couched in the spin of external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup was also an admission that the CEOs sought faster reforms. "By and large the mood was very upbeat. There is general consensus that the Prime Minister is effecting change in India. The only thing all the CEOs said is that 'please make that change faster'." PTI quoted Modi as telling the CEOs that "reform in governance is my No. 1 priority. We are for simplified procedures, speedy decision-making, transparency and accountability." Murray said the Prime Minister had acknowledged the CEOs' concerns, "and pledged to speed up efforts to reduce the role of government in business". From neither account did it appear that Modi had made any firm commitment on specific economic reforms. The newsletter by Murray, who said his "job as moderator was to make sure everyone in this large and voluble group got to speak (they did)", referred to the "popular" Prime Minister's "astonishing" favourability rating in India and said Modi had invited the CEOs to give their advice on how he could accelerate economic growth in India. "And the CEOs were not shy in responding. They praised the Prime Minister's efforts to improve the climate for business, but highlighted a host of obstacles - complicated regulations, excessive permitting, confusing bureaucracy, poor infrastructure, overlapping local taxes, etc - and urged him to pick up the pace of change. Said one: 'It's not an easy place to do business'," Murray said in the newsletter. The high turnout from the CEOs highlights the prime position India holds in today's global economy, Murray added. "With China slowing, ... India's 7.5% growth rate makes it the fastest growing major economy in the world today and many of the CEOs cited plans to expand there," Murray said. The CEOs at the meeting included Lockheed Martin chairman and CEO Marillyn Hewson, Ford president and CEO Mark Fields, IBM chairman Ginni Rometty, PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi and Dow Chemical chairman Andrew Liveris. The Modi government and the BJP have been accusing the Opposition Congress of blocking tax reforms and land acquisition laws by paralysing Parliament. But the Congress has countered that Parliament could have functioned had Modi acted against the foreign minister, who is caught in the Lalit Modi scandal. Investors are also wary of other minefields that include India's poor record in enforcing contracts, its clogged judicial system that leads to protracted litigation, a weak arbitration system to resolve commercial disputes and a capricious style of governance that has seen several administrations overturn the effect of Supreme Court rulings through retrospective changes in tax laws. India hasn't really been a big destination for foreign investors even though net FDI in 2014-15 amounted to $32.6 billion. In the first quarter of this year (April-June), net FDI has been down 7.3 per cent at $10.7 billion from the corresponding period in 2014. During the meeting, Modi circulated a one-page fact sheet summarising the steps taken for deregulation, reforms and consistency in the tax administration. "That note is based on hard facts, on what the government has actually done, what it has done for ease of doing business, where we all expect that when the next report comes, India should have jumped several places up," Swarup said. Foreign investors have been circumspect about committing project funds to India because it languishes at a lowly 142 in the global rankings brought out in World Bank's Doing Business study - way behind China (ranked 90), Sri Lanka (99) and Pakistan (128). |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150926/jsp/frontpage/story_44719.jsp#.VgZRQFSqqko