Capitalising on the investor friendly climate that the government has generated by the way of a progressive Budget and other economic policies, newly-elected FICCI President Rajan Bharti Mittal said his chamber will join forces with the government to stretch out to the global community to hardsell India as a prospective FDI destination and encourage Indian MNCs to invest abroad.

‘We propose to raise the level of FDI to India from the present level of 33 billion dollars a year to 75 billion dollars a year by 2015,’ Mr Mittal said in an exclusive interview to UNI.

Mr Bharti covered a wide array of areas in the interview, including the potential of India as a destination for FDI, need to speed up Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Direct Tax Code (DTC), bring about a congenial investment base with State governments, measures to enhance the speed of development, need for more and more companies taking recourse to Corporate Social Responsibility and the necessity for larger doses of FDI.

An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Mr Mittal is the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises.

The 50-year-old business tycoon took over the Presidency of the Federation from Mr Harsh Pati Singhania late last month.

Mr Bharti acknowledged the fact that regional disparities have been growing as a consequence of some states adopting more pragmatic industrial and economic policies with a view to getting larger investments and those that are laggard in this respect.

He, however, was of view that a paradigm change is taking place in the attitude of the State governments with emphasis now being on promotion of investments and setting up of manufacturing facilities.

There was realisation even among BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh) states of the import of jump starting on development and industrial activities. For instance, even Bihar, which is known for its feudal agrarian structure and being caste ridden, has recorded a robust growth rate of 11 per cent.

Yet, Mr Mittal said, much more needs to be done with State governments to drive home the point that industrialisation needs to proceed faster in a situation when the world is moving rapidly.

‘There is big appetite for investment,’ Mr Mittal quipped.

‘BIMARU’ is a pejorative made into an acronym by taking the first letter of four northern Indian states. It has recently been modified to include Orissa in the list, resulting in the acronym BIMAROU.

The pejorative ‘BIMARU’ was first coined by noted demographer Ashish Bose in the 1980s to mock Hindi-speaking states so that funds to those States could be denied for not being serious about development.

The primary vehicle for promotion of FDI would be ‘Invest India’, a joint venture between FICCI and the Indian government for promotion of investments from the overseas, Mr Mittal said.

He said the apex chamber will lobby visiting delegations, Indian embassies abroad, proactively meet potential investors and conduct road shows to display India’s prowess of a giant awakening up.

Mr Mittal said the three major entities from where foreign investment can flow are the United States, European Union and Japan.

He said that India is already rated as an attractive destination for this purpose, notwithstanding the fact that China gets FDI to the tune of 90 billion dollars, which is about one-third of what India gets.

He was, however, of the opinion that comparison between India and China was futile for the two are different political systems.

India’s advantage is a long-established free enterprise economy, its demographic profile of being the youngest nation of the world, a stable democracy, capabilities of its professionals and the command of the people of the English language, still, by and large, the most widely spoken language in the world.

Mr Mittal said while substantial skills were available, there was a need to take up skill development in a big way.

He said another factor which goes in favour of India is the stability of economic policy no matter whatever be the hue of the government.

In this connection, he noted that both the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) have pursued similar policies aimed at integrating the Indian economy with the international economic order.

Listing some of the advantages of FDI, Mr Mittal said it brings in greater innovation, development of the manufacturing sector and outsourcing benefits.

Mr Mittal was of the view that the UPA government with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an economist of international repute at the helm, would be able to take forward the reform process.

Apart from big ticket reforms like the GST and DTC, Mr Mittal said it was essential to open up retail, insurance and defence production to ensure larger investments into these areas.

Mr Mittal said Budget 2010-11 has already set the agenda for reforms, which includes disinvestment to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore and huge investments in physical and social infrastructure.

UNI