Quota no solution, equality is the way out

Business tycoon Ratan Tata feels that it is better to give “equal opportunities” to all and create a level playing field instead of extending reservation benefits in the private sector.

“We want to create India as a land of equal opportunities for all. We should create a land of equality. We have been co-operating with the CII on this, much before the talks on reservation began,” the Tata Sons chairman said in an informal chat with reporters on Thursday.

His response came on the sidelines of the CII’s National Summit on Corporate Social Responsibility when his reaction was sought on political parties’ demand for reservation for OBCs, SCs and STs in the private sector.

He refused to comment on Tata’s controversial small car project at Singur in West Bengal. “I do not want to comment on the project.”

On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent appeal to corporate sector to put a cap on the salaries of top managerial team, he said, “In Tata Sons, we never offer extravagant salaries and so I do not know about it”.

On the Tata’s acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus, he said, “I am pleased with the way in which the integeration of the company with Tatas is going on”.

Commenting on the telecom business, Ratan Tata said the group has to grow in the sector so that it could provide “end-to-end solutions”.

The group had made a begining in the sector by entering the CDMA techonology. “But when third generation technology comes to the country, we are interested in that too,” he said.

He denied that the group has made an exit from the oil exploration business.

“In a group, which had 80 to 90 companies, some might be big and some might be small, but that it did not mean it had left the exploration sector,” he said.

He said the group was looking at more acquisitions in the beverages sector.

Earlier, he inaugurated the summit by lighting the traditional lamp.

N Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, in his keynote address, said the corporate sector, through its broad network, could help the government in implementing various welfare programmes.