March 28, 2024

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Union minister RS Prasad defines Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Uday Kotak says India Inc should shed risk aversion

India Today’s Rahul Kanwal interacted with Union Minister for Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad and Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Uday Kotak who was recently appointed President of the Confederation of Indian Industry for the year 2020-2021.

Responding to questions about how ‘Made in India’ can replace ‘Made in China’, Uday Kotak said that he has complete confidence in the Government of India’s push for “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”. President of CII and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Uday Kotak told India Today, “India should shed risk aversion, and think about this as an opportunity to build in India and make in India.”

“There is a significant geo-political issue which is being played around in the world between China and the rest of the world and this is about excessive concentration and dependence on China as the factory of the world. Most global players now want a diversification beyond China,” Uday Kotak said.

He further added, “India Inc was in a transition for the last few years, the cause of that transition was India was moving towards a different level of governance and having very different standard of what is expected of business in India.”

Uday Kotak also said that land and labour reforms lie at the centre of the push for India’s goals to replace China as not just the front office but also the back office of the world. For manufacturing, he said that a semi-urban India policy is needed to nudge businesses to shift base of Indian manufacturing to semi-urban parts of the countries. This, said Kotak, will lead to more opportunities.

On the issue of labour reform, Uday Kotak said that policymakers need to keep in mind that “flexible labour policy needs fair safety net”.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, on the other hand said, “Post-COVID world is not going to be the same as before COVID. Global trade will change. Global manufacturing process will change. Maybe, global political engagement will change. Digital is going to become the norm.”

“Our stability, our human resource, our technological prowess, our engineers, scientific community, researchers, professionals, India’s huge market potential and above all, the way Modi ji has led the country in these times of crisis. All this enables investors to think of India as a very safe, secure and prompting destination,” Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

In response to a question about what the Centre is doing to attract global supply chains to India, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Aatmanirbhar Bharat is not against any country. He also pointed out that mobile phone manufacturing units in India have moved from two in 2014 to over 250 now. The government’s new schemes aim to bring not just manufacturers but also ancillary companies to India, the Union Minister added.

“India has also got enough mineral resources, we have to reform, exploit it properly,” Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says in response to a question about China’s control of 90 per cent of the rare earth minerals market.

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