Staff Reporter | 19 Jul, 2008
India can emerge as a world leader in industry and commerce, accounting for 10% of the global trade by 2022. It can become the world's largest pool of trained manpower and a source of global innovations, said K V Kamath, President, CII, while addressing the media in Hyderabad last day.

On the economic aspirations for medium term, he said that India should double its per capita income in 10 years, which means achieving a per capita growth of 7% and GDP growth of 8-9% every year. The target for increasing the manufacturing share should be at 25% by 2020, he added.

Elaborating on the CII theme, "India@75 - The Emerging Agenda", as developed by Prof C K Prahalad, Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

Kamath said that India should focus especially on the bottom of the pyramid as a source of innovations for the world. For the medium term, there is a scope for a 10% growth. He said that in spite of global slowdown and strong challenges in the domestic economy, there is enough momentum and fundamental macro-economic strength in the Indian economy to ensure a 8.3% to 8.6% GDP growth for 2008-09.

However, the challenges are low agricultural productivity & weak supply chain, there are growing off-Budget items, rising commodity and consumer prices, increasing pressure on balance of payments - the Current Account Deficit estimated at 1.5% during 2007-08 with the Indian oil basket at average US $80/ barrel.

He said that CII's 69th Business Outlook survey reveals increase in investments in H1 2008-09. "Over 73% respondents expect increase in production, 63% exporter respondents expect increase in exports and 83% expect raw materials cost to increase due to manufacturing inflation. The outlook for GDP growth is at 8% plus in 2008-09. However, the downside risks are further oil peaks, global economic slowdown, high inflation and interest rate hardening and fiscal discipline under stress.

"Our development agenda for the medium term should be about ensuring better access to health, education, skills training, availability of affordable housing, urban regeneration and rural dynamism, wider access to financial products, lower barriers to entrepreneurship and model cities to accommodate future urban migration," he said.

As for infrastructure, the country needs to build capacity at the state level to develop shelf of bankable projects. It should identify 10 large projects for fast track approval to create demand. He announced that CII would launch "Green Home Rating System", a first of its kind in India. It would setup Water Institute at Jaipur and a framework of Green Procurement Policy. CII would also develop technology vision for India & work on mission mode to push India up in the Global Technology Index.

On global engagements, Kamath said that CII stands for early conclusion of Doha Round, with enhanced market access to developing and least developed countries. He said that CII opposes NAMA text on account of sectoral zero for zero negotiations and inclusion of multilateral principles for re-manufactured goods. CII is for deepening engagement with Brazil, Russia, China & Africa to strengthen long-term business ties. It sees India-ASEAN FTA, an opportunity for India to attract investments.

He said that CII has identified several key imperatives and enablers for sustaining the growth momentum.  Some of these measures include; need for a model land leasing Act and promotion of investments is high value agriculture; promotion of private investments in tier II towns in the areas of healthcare, organized retailing, tourism and logistics services.  The country also needs political consensus to support labour reforms, enable uniform application of rules and regulations at State level and support simplification and rationalisation of labour legislations

Dr B V R Mohan Reddy, Chairman, CII - Southern Region said that  CII-SR has developed a 'visioning exercise' for the Southern States and released Vision Documents for Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu with an aim to achieve and equitable and inclusive growth.   CII also embarked upon  a ten-point agenda this year, which lay emphasis on skills, employability & affirmative action, infrastructure development, enhancing competitiveness of MSMEs,  building linkages in agriculture, manufacturing and services, education, and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Utpal Sen Gupta, Chairman, CII - Andhra Pradesh State Council said that CII  proposes a common minimum economic agenda for political parties on  the State Vision for 2025. "We will be training 5000 youth under Grassroot Level Skill Development Initiative, upgrade 24 ITIs into Centers of Excellence, promote 100 entrepreneurs under PPP mode and study and protect Geographical Indication (GI) in traditional sectors of Andhra Pradesh," he said.

Venu Srinivasan, Vice President, CII and Managing Director, Sundaram Clayton Ltd and Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII were also present at the Press Conference.