India story strong, states need to do their bit: Gurnani

Impressed with the euphoria about India here at WEF summit, IT industry leader C P Gurnani today said a lot will depend on the individual states to ensure that this upbeat interest among foreign investors translates into real investment flows.
"The mood is surprisingly upbeat about India here at Davos. I believe that may be they are looking for a reason (amid tough global conditions) to be upbeat and that is why they are so much upbeat about India.
"There is euphoria at times and the meetings of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have been taken very very positively by the CEOs out here. I have interacted with almost 60-70 CEOs here at the WEF Annual Meeting and all of them are very upbeat on India," said Gurnani, MD and CEO of IT major Tech Mahindra.

Asked whether the investors are getting convinced, he said: "Davos is not about convincing anyone. It is more about interpreting the mood and the mood this time is very positive."
"Same time last year, everyone was saying that let's wait for the elections as a new government might come in soon. The previous year it was like a game of snake and ladder with regard to India.
"There is a sense of optimism this time and how it would translate into money that would depend on various factors including by actions of various states.

"I met one of the leading businessmen from Australia and he was saying he wants to set up a factory and he was asking which state he should go to.

"In the last two years, we did not have such kinds of conversations. That I can give credit to our leaders present here, but how it translates into real money, that will depend a lot on what our state governments do," he said.
Gurnani said there are three things that have been definitely a hit at Davos this year.
"One is Finance Minister representing India. Second is the feeling that bottlenecks regarding the ease of doing business would be removed.
"Everybody is aware that tax terrorism has been stopped and USD 300 billion worth infrastructure projects have been cleared and some of the executive orders like ordinances have been taken well.

"The third major thing is that the hard-sell by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu has been very well received. When he is talking about a new city, about his six-pronged investment strategy, all of them have been very well taken here," he added.