Worst is over, India to look up from here: ex-CAG Rai

Says we are soon going to be on a path of recovery

Former comptroller and auditor general of India Vinod Rai expressed worst was behind for India and the country would see an economic turnaround this year.

Speaking at the annual convention 2014 of Madras Management Association (MMA) in Chennai on the weekend, he said, "I am very happy and very bullish the worse is behind us and we are soon going to be on a path of recovery".

"Maybe, we don't see a dramatic turnaround this year itself, but very soon, it will be a discernible movement upwards, which is very significant, steady and consistent over the years," he said.

According to him, in the current context, economic growth or rapid economic growth is no longer an option for India, but a necessity. And the rapid growth should be inclusive in character.

Lauds younger generation
The younger generation has come up seeking probity, morality, ethics and transparency on which they are going to built the country in the aspects of politics and business.

"The GenNext across locations, societies, professions, had demonstrated they feel enough was enough. They feel the need to play by the rules. They do not want to take shortcuts. They do not want to jump the queue," he said.

Six to seven years after the start of Millenium, India's political economy took a beating where coalitions became tenures, witnessed tensions within the government and the emerging of turf issues, and regional interests.

Whether it was Trinamool Congress handling the railways, the DMK handling telecom and the NCP handling civil aviation, it was their turf. They said everybody lay off, nobody else will touch anything in it.

He said the Prime Minister was not able to sign the Teesta river water-sharing agreement with Bangladesh and attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka, as the regional interests dominated over the national concerns.

Similarly, in business, when foreign countries were ready to invest in India, unfortunately some elements of these got diverted by processes which were not very transparent.

"A classic example was large company like Telenor tying up with a real estate company located in Delhi for a telecom business. The crisis was bound to happen as these companies did not have the domain knowledge and could not make the licenses work. Inevitably, they were financially over leveraged leading to huge non-performing assets in corporate debt restructuring," he said.

In business, people in the age of around 40 plus feel jumping taking short cuts should not be there any more. In politics also, people who think, or who were sitting in drawing rooms indulging in intellectual debates, are now descending on the streets to win contests, which is encouraging, he said.