No assurances for India Inc

While Prime Minister Modi told India Inc to catalyse its risk appetite and investments as it had a greater risk-taking ability, he did not give them any assurance that he would look into the hurdles to investment. They reportedly mentioned high risk of capital and need for monetary easing, stuck infrastructure projects, implementation of GST etc., but there was no response to this.

Mr Modi is obviously concerned about private investment not forthcoming to complement public sector investment and that’s why he called them to meet him along with the RBI governor and bureaucrats. He is probably wondering why — when foreign investment is pouring in, the latest being from Foxconn, and Siemens — India Inc. is not showing the same enthusiasm. The Bill Gates Foundation, for instance, is very excited by the Swachchh Bharat programme, and others, including China, by the Make in India project.

The stock markets have sunk to levels that existed before Mr Modi took over. The FIIs had been quitting the markets in droves and a big fund manager said markets cannot survive on hope (raised by the PM) alone.

Perhaps there is a communication gap between the PM and India Inc., or he is barking up the wrong tree. One feels he should be speaking to the medium and small business sectors. They can take maximum advantage of the government-initiated schemes and become job creators.