CII President says GDP growth can reach 6.5% in 2014-15 with reforms

India can achieve GDP growth rate of well over 6 percent

provided that systemic reforms are carried out quickly by the new Government, said Ajay S Shriram, the new President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said in a press conference.

Unveiling the CII action theme for the year as 'Accelerating Growth, Creating Employment', Mr Shriram noted, "With slowing growth and high inflation adversely impacting employment, CII will urge the next Government to focus on reviving growth and generating new jobs."

In his press conference, Mr Shriram added that CII has proposed a strong 100-day action agenda for the new government to boost growth. "A strong economic revival package and right implementation of policies by a fresh Government can help create as many as 150 million jobs in the next ten years," he stressed. "Industry is looking for top policy steps such as introduction of GST, easing of interest rates by 100 bps, keeping subsidies at 1.7 per cent of GDP, and restructuring of labour laws to promote mass manufacturing."

CII further stated that with continuing robust reforms, GDP growth could be taken back to the 8 per cent level in the next three years. "A market-friendly environment is required that would proactively promote investments, business and entrepreneurship," said Mr Shriram. Mass manufacturing sectors and labour-intensive services sectors need to be encouraged, he continued.

Key priorities for CII in the coming year will be in the following ten areas: education, skills, economic growth, manufacturing sector growth, investments, ease of doing business, export competitiveness, legal and regulatory architecture, labour law reforms and entrepreneurship.

CII has strongly called for implementation of the following policies, among others, in the first 100 days by the next Government:

Introduction of GST

Containment of subsidies and fiscal consolidation

Monetary easing - reduction in the repo rate by 100 bps

Maintenance of a competitive exchange rate

Fast-tracking stalled projects and increasing public capital investments

Timely implementation of DMIC and NIMZs

Setting up of state level mechanisms similar to Project Monitoring Group which will review and monitor projects at state level

A strong inter- Ministerial co-ordination group to resolve sticky issues like mining, raw material securitisation for sectors like Steel, etc

An institutional mechanism to renegotiate the terms of concession in Public Private Partnership Contracts to salvage stranded investments

Expansion of e-governance and technology based initiatives to simplify processes and online monitoring of application forms

Time-bound approvals by introducing 'deemed approvals' in case of delays beyond prescribed limit

Restructuring labour laws including introduction of Fixed Term Employment for industry to hire manpower on short term assignments

CII would continue to provide inputs in the areas of direct and indirect taxes to help India emerge as an attractive destination for business.

In agriculture, CII's Food and Agricultural Center of Excellence (FACE) is studying the impact of Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act (APMC) which needs to be revamped to delist perishables. CII will also undertake a study on gas pricing and its impact on end-users, macro-economic indicators and the investment environment.

In manufacturing, it will work with concerned Ministries and State Governments on delayed projects and also on specific policies, particularly for labour-intensive sectors. CII has called for quick implementation of the National Manufacturing Policy and would bring out a report on Mass Manufacturing policy. For MSMEs, CII plans to launch a Finance Facilitation Centre and initiatives to link Indian SMEs with global value chains.

In services, CII will constitute National Services Competitiveness Council and develop a sectoral strategy for doubling of services export by 2025. It has targeted several sectors such as Tourism and Hospitality, Financial Services, Telecommunications and Professional Services for export promotion.

For better quality higher education, one of the CII interventions will be to launch the 100-100 program where 100 CII member companies will create 100 Faculty Sabbaticals who will spend two/ three months in industry to explore multi-level partnerships like research, curriculum, and skills development. In skills, CII will help implement the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and continue to work on Sector Skills Councils.

In labour laws, CII will create platforms for sharing best practices from industry which have helped in fostering better industrial relations within the current framework. In addition, it will work with its membership, Trade Unions, Central and State Governments for creating consensus on various issues.

To improve the ease of doing business in India, CII will present to the government best practices in the states which can be emulated in the areas of land acquisition, contract enforcement and taxation. CII has been strongly underscoring the need for a reduction in transactions cost of exports to overcome difficult business conditions abroad. In this context, CII has constituted a task force on transactions costs which proposes a framework for building an efficient trade facilitation mechanism in India.

In order to support entrepreneurship, CII will significantly expand its PPP initiative "India Innovation Initiative" to select the most innovative entrepreneurs through a pan-India competition.