| India Inc seeks infra boost to fight slowdown | |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi November 21, 2008, 0:54 IST | |
Expressing worries about the massive job cuts and the food crisis that could hit the country amid the economic slowdown, the country’s top business leaders today supported the idea that the government should unleash a massive infrastructure drive across the country to arrest the trend.
In a two-hour brainstorming session with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani, 15 top corporate leaders nearly endorsed the BJP’s view that the “crisis needs a big-bang approach to handle” as against the “incremental crawling approach” of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Advani had invited the leading figures of the corporate world, including Rahul Bajaj, Mukesh Ambani, Sajjan Jindal, Sunil Mittal, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Anil Ambani, Subhash Chandra among others, to exchange ideas on the current economic crisis.
Ratan Tata, Narayan Murthy and Nusli Wadia did not attend the meet as they were out of the country.
Advani’s move is aimed at taking a lead over the UPA government on showing his concern for the economic crisis. It is also believed to a part of the BJP’s plan to campaign against the UPA’s alleged failure in tackling the economic slowdown ahead of the coming Lok Sabha election.
The corporate leaders wanted the government to provide social security for the common people, revitalise the towns and create jobs in the rural areas and making agriculture a profitable venture.
The BJP is planning more interactions between Advani and other sectors of economy like the small and medium enterprises.
Senior BJP leaders who were present at the meeting included Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie, Vijay Kapoor and S Gurumurthy.
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