Govt moots master plan to revive investor sentiment

In order to revive investor sentiment, the central government is set to come up with some confidence building measures soon. While various ministries are framing a master plan to create a “hassle-free” business climate, the corporate affairs ministry is working on a business index to rate industry performance.

This comes against the backdrop of ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgrading India’s outlook to negative from stable, stating slow progress in fiscal situation.

Speaking to industry representatives, Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily hoped these measures and the steps, the Prime Minister was taking, on the economic front — regarding General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR) and taxation —will drive the economy back on track in the next two to three months.

“We are working through our ministry and also in talks with the ministries of finance and commerce. It would deal with clearance in foreign direct investments, speeding up the process of mergers and acquisitions. This master plan would help the industrial houses a lot for having a good investment climate in the country,” he said on the sidelines of a Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce event.

Revealing that the government was working on a business index, Moily said, “I already saw a presentation in this regard from Dun & Bradstreet. We are interested in this. Talking to many people is not a solution to set up a business index, we have to assign it to some professional agencies. This will deal with the competitiveness, too. We are planning to come up with something on this in the next two months.”

Earlier, speaking at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, the minister highlighted the government had set up a committee, under Adi Godrej, to look into national corporate governance policy and a draft on this would be ready in two months. Meanwhile, the ministry is also looking to table the Companies Bill during the upcoming monsoon session starting in August. The minister termed the recent violence at Maruti’s Manesar plant as unfortunate and said, “The company has already said it is going to run the plant. That shows the will power of the firm. This kind of violence should not be taken as a tool to settle their disputes.”

Plant forms a good share of the revenue of Haryana. Do you think a state government can afford to lose it?”