Commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath told a group of top global CEOs on Wednesday that since India was a domestic demand and growth-driven economy, it was largely insulated from the turbulent developments in the international financial markets. He also reaffirmed that inclusive growth would be important for India to continue on the growth path.
Speaking at a breakfast session, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and India Brand Equity Fund (IBEF), at the World
Economic Forum, Nath, while speaking to a select group of international CEOs, mentioned that infrastructure development was critical for this inclusive growth and with India’s demographic advantage of a very young population, the aspirational expectations of the youth and making them employable was a major human skills development exercise.
The commerce minister also said agricultural productivity and using the benefits of research in agriculture were important for the country and also that India was not diverting agricultural land to bio-fuels but focusing on bio-fuels growing on non-agriculture land.
Responding to queries raised by the CEOs, Nath said Indian economy was domestic growth-and-demand driven and, thus, largely insulated from global financial developments. He also said that the world trade negotiations were at a final phase and it was no longer a North-South issue since all sides were now engaged.
Referring to the developments in financial circles, Nath said there were two additional drivers in the global economy, India and China, which opened up new opportunities for global funds deployment.
The minister focused on the need for infrastructure development and detailed initiatives like the $90 billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
International CEOs present at the meeting were Pierre Beaudoin, President & CEO of Bombardier, Mark Tucker, Group CEO, Prudential Plc; Anton Van der Lande, VP, UPS; Yasuo Hayashi, chairman and CEO, Jetro; Sanjay Jha, COO, Qualcomm Plc, Peter Bakker, CEO, TNT NV, Terry Hill, chairman, Arup Group, Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO, Pepsico, Manvinder Banga, president-foods, Unilever NV and Francois Barrault, CEO, BT Global Services.
The Indian team was represented by KV Kamath, VP, CII and MD & CEO of ICICI Bank, Ajay Shankar, secretary, DIPP; Ashwin Dani, vice-chairman and MD, Asian Paints, Madhur Bajaj, vice chairman, Bajaj Auto; Rajendra Pawar, chairman, NIIT, among others.