India Inc emphasises on exports of local goods for becoming $5 trn economy

From policy stability to emphasis on exports of local goods, key industry players on Saturday discussed and suggested measures for making India a $5-trillion economy.

SAIL Chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary, ITC Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Sanjiv Puri, Cadila Healthcare Chairman Pankaj R Patel, Bharti Enterprises Vice Chairman Rajan Bharti Mittal and JK Paper Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Harsh Pati Singhania took part in the discussion during a session on 'India: Roadmap to a $5 trillion economy' organised by Ficci in New Delhi.

The executives stressed on the need for Indian manufacturing to become globally competitive and join global value chain as the key ingredients for becoming a $5-trillion economy.

“If we have to reach the level of $5-trillion economy by the next five years, we have to be globally competitive. India also needs to increase its exports of steel and other manufactured items,” SAIL Chairman Chaudhary said.

Cadila Healthcare Chairman Patel said that policy stability is required for any business to grow. “Without policy stability it becomes impossible for industry to plan long-term goals.” “We all know that manufacturing is not something we can decide today and begin the production tomorrow. It takes time. Besides, innovation has the most important role to play for any industry to survive,” he said.

Bharti Enterprises' Rajan Mittal suggested that the government should focus on strengthening the digital backbone of the country.

Industry has been disrupted, he said adding that government's intervention is needed.

J K Paper's Singhania said the country's manufacturing sector first needs to become internally competitive as several factors are still holding it back including the multiplicity of regulations from different regulators.

ITC CMD Puri said that “farming is a large employer. Lots of jobs were created in the post-harvest management”.

“Even the food processing segment has the largest employment to capital ratio. We need to plug into the global value chains in value-added agricultural products,” he added.

Chaudhary said the domestic steel sector is facing challenges in form of high input costs and unavailability of coking coal in the country.

“However, the government is well aware of the issues and is taking appropriate steps and measures to overcome these challenges,” he said.