India's top corporate leader, Mukesh Ambani, who heads the country's most valued firm, RIL, feels that the nation should go beyond mere lip service on financial inclusion and create millions of jobs for growth.
"Inclusion and all that is what I call lip service and we need some concrete action and make sure we create enough learning opportunities for 10 to 15 million people and at the end of the day, we need equitable growth," Ambani said after receiving the NDTV Profit business leadership award.
"... The world is going to have a difficult time and with all the leadership that we have in our country and in spite of all the difficulties we have in the Parliament, the view of external world is that we are really laying the foundation for continuous growth and for equitable growth," he said.
Hailing as 'historic milestones' the Direct Taxes Code and GST, which are being pushed hard by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, he said the US and every other country would want to have them and India was really laying the foundation for continuous growth.
Asked if the appeal by American business leader Bill Gates and 25 other billionaires there to donate half their wealth to charity was a gimmick or an example to be followed, Ambani said that circumstances in India were different.
"Within India, most of the people still do not realise that all the wealth that you people publish all about, most of it has paper value.
"If we have control over the company, I have always believed that these shares are not to be sold. The whole objective is to build an institution that is timeless and that at least was my motivation, it was my commitment to my father."
Ambani, however, added that at an individual level, he would relate to the appeal and even in this part of the world, industrialists would need to give.
In a lighter vein, he said: "I am sure the Finance Minister will not get ideas of inheritance tax. That is the main reason that most people in the US give." Ambani received his award from Mukherjee, an NDTV statement said today.
In a nostalgic mood, Ambani recalled that his father Dhirubhai Ambani had introduced him to Mukherjee in 1980, then also Finance Minister.
At that time, Ambani said, Mukherjee had told him: "Mukesh, your father has worked very hard to build a foundation. You now have to work hard to build one of the best companies in India.
"And I (Ambani) think thirty years from then, the satisfaction that I have is that we have built an institution... So that's really satisfying."
