Leading industrialists and business houses on Monday urged Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to look into their problems owing to the global meltdown and its subsequent effect on the Indian economy.
As the ongoing financial crisis dominated the proceedings of the Vibrant Gujarat 2009 roadshow organised by the Gujarat government here, Modi used the forum to tell the gathering that Gujaratis like him will not sit back but convert the present crisis into opportunity.
HCC chairman Ajit Gulabchand set the tone as he called upon Modi to take a non-bipartisan view to face the financial crisis and urged him to meet the RBI governor on a priority basis to address the tight liquidity situation in the economy. Gulabchand argued that several projects, mainly those on the public-private partership (PPP) model, are in trouble due to the liquidity shortage.
Modi said he had already met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make a slew of suggestions on the crisis. However, the Gujarat chief minister expressed strong reservation over the way the crisis was being managed by the Centre.
He did not lose an opportunity to take a dig at the UPA government and the Prime Minister and claimed that Singh did meet industrialists as per his suggestion of convening a round table but instead of taking a firm stand on how the issue will be handled, he called on them not to retrench staff.
Modi also warned that strict measures had to be taken to curb the entry of dirty money (drug mafias, underworld) in the official financial system. The Gujarat chief minister warned that there has been an unprecedented surge in the hawala money and reiterated that the Centre should take all the necessary steps against it.
Earlier, Modi called upon the investors, industrialists and business houses to participate in the Vibrant Gujarat exhibition-cum-conference. ?You must experience and feel the development in Gujarat which has made it a participative movement. Besides, we have a pro-active governance and sufficient attention is paid on modifying various policies for the benefit of investors,? he noted.
While maintaining that he had kept the industrial development in his state on auto-pilot, Modi said he was now concentrating on improving the human development index in Gujarat.