India will be world's 2nd factory

'India will be world's 2nd factory'

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi February 28, 2005 18:23 IST

Reacting to Finance Minister P Chidambaram's Budget proposals on said:

"The key is implementation. The prime minister should set up a team of three officials whose only job should be to monitor implementation of the various projects that are underway or have been promised.

"We need to know what has happened, where the funds have been diverted, and find a way to manage these programmes. The implementation should not be left to individual ministries; what we need is a commando approach to track each and every scheme, day by day. This is difficult in today's day and age when such tracking can be done over computer.

"We welcome the government's plan to push up public-private partnerships. Believe me, we will see the results by next year. The tax cuts are also welcome. Such cuts will stimulate demand and push up growth.

"But I am buttuming that if even after the tax cuts, the government's revenue is not affected it is because more people will be in the tax bracket. That too is welcome: we need more people to pay taxes.

"The Budget is also good for the manufacturing sector, especially the plans for the small and medium enterprises. Indian manufacturing has proven its mettle; we are not running from China. Instead, we are competing with China and at present, our exports are more than our imports. If China is the world's first factory, let us be clear that India will be the second factory."