FICCI welcomes PM Narendra Modi's comments on role of wealth creators

Kolkata: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent comments on the role of industry and business in the country and has said that success stories of Indian enterprise at home and abroad should be celebrated for motivating the youth to dream big.

On February 10, replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha, Modi not only described entrepreneurs as wealth creators who generate resources for redistribution in society, but also flayed at the popular tendency of maligning them at every opportunity.

The prime minister also took a dig at the culture of babudom and said the thought process that has handed over the country to bureaucrats who seem to be able to run everything from an airplane to a fertilizer factory is inherently flawed.

“At a time that the COVID-hit Indian industry is trying to pick up its rhythm of high growth, the prime minister’s acknowledgment would be a much-needed shot in the arm for entrepreneurs and the business community. The private sector contributes as much as 87% to the GDP and almost 60% to the employment in the country and if India has to lift its teeming millions out of poverty, we need to create a national consensus to ensure that those who create jobs, economic value and a culture of enterprise are recognised for their contribution,” said Uday Shankar, president of the 94-year old chamber of commerce.

“Every day, we notice a surge in aspirations in our country and to meet those aspirations the industry, civil society and political class will have to work together. No single institution alone can work in a manner to give shape to the dreams of our youth. We hope that this statement by the Prime Minister will lead to a fresh new discourse towards the national consensus on the role industry and enterprise play in this country,” said Shankar.

Over the past few years, Modi has been highlighting the need for giving the private sector wealth creators respect in society that he says the entrepreneur never got.

In 2019, speaking from the Red Fort on August 15, he had said that wealth creators are extremely important for the country. “They must not be viewed with suspicion…We should not look at wealth creators with apprehension and doubt their intentions; we should not look down upon them.”

“Wealth creation is a great national service,” the prime minister also wrote on Twitter.

But his words on February 10 surpassed his earlier articulations both in rhetoric and body language parameters.

“Take any sector – telecom, pharma – and we see the role of the private sector. If India is able to serve humanity, it is also due to the role of the private sector,” he said in Lok Sabha.

While earlier governments have shied away from openly courting industrialists perhaps from the fear of being described as anti-poor and politically incorrect, Modi has reversed that logic on its head arguing it’s only by creating wealth in society that the government can distribute wealth for the benefit of the poor.