A few days after the finance ministry projected the GDP growth rate upwards of 7.75%, management guru C K Prahalad said he sees 10% growth. Optimist about the pace of development in certain parts of the country, he thinks the growth can even be achieved by 2010-11.
?I expect to see 10% growth? Overall the country is growing at 7%. But if you look at parts of India they are already growing at 10% plus,? Prahalad said.
?Gujarat is growing faster. So is Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The whole country is growing at 7% but not all of India. The aggregate average data for India does not tell you the story,? he commented.
?A lot more is going on in India. If you can de-segregate them and if you look at it by areas and geographies you get a much more differentiated view of opportunities,? he said maintaining that domestic consumption will be the major driver for India?s growth story.
?India is a domestic consumption led growth. More two wheelers, refrigerators, television sets, FMCG products, textiles, more roads? everything requires production,? he said, while talking to reporters on the sidelines of national conference on leadership organized by CII-Suresh Neotia Center of Excellence for leadership.
Commenting on the land acquisition process in India he said that fairness in land acquisition is very important. ?Fairness does not mean inability to acquire land. Unfair race of acquiring land might have created a backlash. But other countries also do it. We are not the only country where poor people live on land. Development cannot take place unless you find alternative usage of land and water,? he said.
Citing examples like Bhilai and Bokaro steel plant Prahalad said: ?Don?t tell me we don?t know how to do it. We knew how to do it but there are too many interests today which are not development oriented.?