New govt must focus on disinvestment, job creation & agri:

Disinvestment, support for new business creation and converting farmers into entrepreneurs are the three key priority areas flagged for the new government by IT industry veteran S Gopalakrishnan on Friday.

The co-founder of Infosys Ltd said the new Government must continue the reform agenda and also at look ways to increase its revenues.

"Disinvestment is probably one of the priorities that I would think the Government should take up", the former President of the Confederation of Indian Industry told PTI.

Disinvesment is required to improve the efficiency, and necessary to increase the government's revenues, and reduce the expenses, said Gopalakrishnan, Chairman of Axilor Ventures, a company supporting and funding startups,.

Gopalakrishnan said the policy of supporting startups must continue. "We must look at ease of doing business".

Telangana and Karnataka, he said, have done a good job in encouraging startups.

"We need to now look at how we can spread to other States, especially the States in the east and northeast because we need a vibrant startup ecosystem across the country, even in rural areas," added Gopalakrishnan.

There should be focus on new business creation, not just startups that can be funded, he said.

"There are many, many startups that are individual run enterprises...small and medium enterprises, we have to ensure that there is adequate support for them, there is a requirement to look at credit...", Gopalakrishnan said.

Stressing the need to convert farmers into entrepreneurs, he said farmer producer companies (FPCs), wher farmers come together and create larger groupings enabling them to get better purchase and market power, is a good model to look at.

"There are good examples of FPCs working very well; we need to replicate them across the country", he said.