Saturday, Dec 14, 2002
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By Our Special Correspondent
Rajendra S. Lodha, President, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, presenting a FICCI Book to the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, at the 75th Annual General Meeting (Platinum Jubilee) of FICCI in New Delhi on Friday. A. C. Muthiah, President-elect, FICCI, is also seen. — Photo: Shanker Chakravarty
Speaking at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's platinum jubilee celebrations, he said, "let me confess that I am myself as dissatisfied as any of you over the slow progress in several areas.'' In the case of government systems and regulations, he said these had not been sufficiently reformed to serve the needs of rapid economic growth. Many entrepreneurs especially those in the small and medium sectors were "routinely harassed and humilated'' under this Inspector Raj. "This must end,'' he said to resounding applause from the captains of industry. He stressed the need for increasing the growth rate merely by carrying out necessary governance reforms at various levels. Towards this end, the Government is implementing recommendations of a committee set up to analyse the impediments to investment by the public and public sectors at Central, State and local government levels. He felt these would have a profound effect on the execution of physical and social infrastructure projects and transform the character of business-government interface. In this context, he also referred to the steps initiated by the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, to make the tax system "more business friendly, investor friendly and friendly towards the honest tax payer.'' He sought the support of the business leaders present there for the success of these initiatives. Mr. Vajpayee said his vision and mission to make the democratic system more development oriented which was the basic purpose of economic and governance reforms. "At the same time, we have to further democratise our development. The fruits of development must reach the poor and the underprivileged,'' he said. Pointing out that this was the basic expectation from economic reforms, he said the gap between the haves and have nots as also the gap between the developed and underdeveloped regions, must be bridged. The economy had to produce more, create more productive employment opportunities and help the people lead better lives, he said. He felt the more this expectation was met, the more enthusiastically the people would support the agenda of reforms. "The more vigorously we implement this agenda, the more surely will we be able to meet our people's expectations. Let this virtuous cycle of reforms-driven development guide the activities of both the government and Indian business,'' he said. Mr. Vajpayee pointed out that in spite of many impediments, the Government had not wavered from its commitment to economic reforms, be it on the legislative front or on the implementation front. "You have seen how we are trying to carry everyone along — through dialogue and consultations, through depoliticising developmental issues and through a constant effort to expand the area of consensus on economic reforms,'' he said adding in a democracy this process could not be bypassed.
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