No reason for reforms to change; it could even accelerate

SANJIV PURI, THE ITC chairman who was recently elected president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, has a clear blueprint: Ensure that the new 'coalition' government's composition does not derail the economic reforms set in motion by Modi 1.0 and 2.0.

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

And that there is something in it for everyone, the takeaways from the recent election results making it all too clear. Puri and India Inc's first test in this regard will be the Union budget, slated for mid-July. And he has some expectations. Excerpts from an exclusive interview:

Q/India is having an economic boom, but one that is not creating jobs. Is the private sector not investing enough at fault?

A/India has achieved an 8 per cent plus growth at a time when the rest of the world has been under stress. So that in itself is an exceptional performance. Now, India has a demographic advantage. Therefore, there is a need to create a lot of quality jobs; no doubt about it. What should be the way forward? The broad approach to growth and creating jobs is around the model that has been adopted by the government-an investment-led growth. Investment creating jobs and consumption creating a virtuous cycle.

First of all, we need to look at next-generation reforms, which are between the state and the Centre. Land, labour, agriculture, power, and so on, to unlock the productivity of the economy,

Number two, we believe that the private capital expenditure (capex), which also serves a purpose besides generating employment, strengthens the competitiveness of the economy, reduces logistics costs and increases accessibility for people to various services that may not be available in their location. Private capex should go up by 25 per cent. And there can be greater thrust on rural areas besides these two.

Q/ But that would again be from the government side. What can the private sector do to generate more jobs?