Infra-led growth is a force multiplier

T.V. Narendran, CEO & MD, Tata Steel & president, CII

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

After many rounds of lock-downs and business recov-ery, India Inc has made it clear that beyond stimulus, beyond loans and beyond cash transfers, the single most important measure that can pull India back from the brink of a disaster is vaccination. So it did not come as a surprise when industry veteran T.V. Narendran, global head of Tata Steel, one of the biggest steelmakers in the world, made a clarion call for appointing a vaccine minister. In his first interview after taking over as president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Narendran spoke about vaccines, the importance of technology as a geopolitical and economic strategy and how rural India could lead us to normalcy. Excerpts:

If a third wave of the pandemic is inevitable, how can the government and industry mitigate the pain points better?

Vaccinate. It reduces the chances of getting the virus and if you do get it, the impact is lower. That is step one. Step two is to make sure that we continue to build up infrastructure and prepare hospitals for the surge. There are multiple dimensions to the preparation that we need to do, like oxygen, but the most important one is making sure that more and more people are vaccinated.

How different is the economic scenario now compared with the unlocking after the first lockdown?