Govt open to pvt sector's feedback: Montek

With private sector, particularly the IT industry, setting new standards and benchmarks in corporate governance, the Centre is open to feedbacks and suggestions from the industries to usher in reforms in administration.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia made this clear when he told reporters on Monday that there were several issues that the governments, both at the Centre and state level, can pick from the private sector, especially from successful companies like Infosys.

"There should be no doubt in anybody's mind. The government is open to feedback. Even at the Planning Commission, we constantly look for feedback. And I think that should be the way forward," he added.

He noted that there are companies in the country that have standards to achieve extraordinary results.

"Their success has made others to look up to them for similar results. It becomes extremely important that government remains open to ideas and inputs from outside," he pointed out.

The fact that the governments are open to inputs from the private sector has already been demonstrated.

"In the last two years, there are over a handful of chief ministers, who recognise the need to listen to private sector, initiate policies to nurture their growth for overall development," Ahluwalia said.

Speaking on the another important subject of manufacturing, Ahluwalia admitted that sufficient measures have still not been taken to promote the manufacturing industry in the country.

"There is no doubt that as far as the manufacturing sector is concerned we have not even started doing what we should have done. Why other sectors like manufacturing have failed to emulate the IT industry needs to be examined," he said.

He, however, did not advocate tax holidays to the manufacturing sector for growth.

"I do not think giving tax holiday is the answer. We have to analyse our failures. It could be the way the companies are structured or it could be the lack of support from the public administration or even infrastructure," he contended.

According to him, a primary hurdle faced by the manufacturing industry is infrastructure. "The IT industry may not require as much infrastructure as the manufacturing industry. The manufacturing sector is engaged in heavy movement of materials. If the government concentrates all its efforts to providing the necessary infrastructure, then the industry itself will meet the rest of the requirements."

He was of the opinion that the emergence of China, particularly in the manufacturing segment, was an extremely positive development for India.

"All these days, we insulated ourselves in our thinking. Our view of the world was extremely limited. But China converted the impossible into possible. We can penetrate this market and compete with China. What we have to do now is to make China think that India is its competitor. Unfortunately, I do not see it happening in any sector other than the IT industry," he said.