Bombay Stock Exchange CEO Rajnikant Patel set the tone of the evening in his introductory remarks, ?When a 133-year-old organisation celebrates its second annual day of its new corporate avatar, what does it do? It thinks out-of-the-box.? To mark the occasion, the BSE thought of holding a roundtable, not to discuss the rise and fall of the Sensex, but to talk about the ?challenge of inclusive growth.?
Thus, on Friday evening, a panel comprising Future Group chairman Kishore Biyani, Punjab National Bank CMD KC Chakraborty, economist Ila Patnaik, UTI chairman UK Sinha and microfinance guru Vikram Akula debated the challenges that were keeping ?India 2??a Biyani coinage?outside the purview of wealth creation. Organised by the BSE, in association with The Financial Express, and moderated by NDTV Profit?s Shivnath Thukral, the panelists offered several solutions too – from active public-private partnerships to create growth opportunities in rural India to pointing out that the rich must take some responsibility in enhancing the life of the poor.
?If you create more consumption, it will lead to more development,? began Biyani, who controls the country?s biggest retail group, and sources a lot of his products from rural India. ?For every Rs 100 an urban consumer spends, it puts Rs 39 in a rural poor?s pocket.? Pointing out that as a retailer he was taking all the steps he could to generate wealth among the rural poor, he mentioned a unique experiment in Andhra Pradesh where his company trained people from the villages to speak in English and so forth and employed them at their premium stores. ?The model has worked for us.?
To this, both Chakraborty and Sinha protested that it wouldn?t be fair to blame the government for all our ills. ?Tremendous changes have happened in the past 15 years,? said Sinha. Patnaik and Akula argued for the need of the government to put the physical infrastructure in place. ?There?s a missing link in terms of infrastructure – rural India needs roads, electricity, access to health care, education. The poor in the villages have the aspiration to do well but don?t have the physical capacity,? said Akula. ?When we come the poor, there?s no liberalisation,? pointed out Akula.
Biyani admitted that wealth is being created in the hands of a few. ?It?s a fact that India 1 doesn?t give enough to India 2. Unless wealth is not distributed, growth will benefit only the well-off.?
Sinha said those who are benefiting from growth must play a role in uplifting the poor. Akula called for public-private partnership in a big way and Biyani said it is time to bring in a new thought leadership, a strategic design, to make inclusive growth happen.
But Chakraborty left one pertinent question for the audience: ?When you go home, ask yourself what are you doing to implement inclusive growth??