India Inc captains bat for manufacturing boost

India's top industrialists and bankers including Kumar Mangalam Birla, Anand Mahindra, Kishore Biyani, Chanda Kochhar and Arundhati Bhattacharya feel that if India has to grow, then the manufacturing sector cannot be neglected.
Speaking at an event in Mumbai, the panellists unanimously felt it was the manufacturing sector that has the ability to generate the necessary jobs quickly to ensure that the demographic bulge is a boon and not a disaster.

Birla batted for sustainable growth and said it was the secret to create more jobs. "Jobs get created when you have growth, when it is sustainable and solid," he said.

He said the diversified Aditya Birla Group would employ 12,000 people at the entry level in the next three years. “These would be graduate engineers, diploma holders, MBAs and ITIs for our manufacturing units,“ he added.

The chief of ICICI Bank, Kochhar, said it was important to provide basic health, education, and also skill to the people. “Of late, the services sector has mainly created employ ment in the country,“ she said. “We have to ensure that all our sectors fire up. The agricultural value chains and the manufacturing sector have to really create employment.Make in India (and) Digital India help in creating employment for the young population.“

Birla also said the government and the corporate sector have to fire on all cylinders to get the economy going.

Speaking at the same event, Errol D'souza of IIM-Ahmedabad, a former member of the central bank's technical advisory committee, said inflation targeting in an economy like India, where supply side constraints have been a major cause of inflation, is still relevant as it can manage inflationary expectations in a better manner.