Brussels, July 1: Perturbed over criticism by certain industry leaders, HSBC India Head Naina Lal Kidwai has said that perception of global business community about India is better than its own industry back home.
“... our perception of ourselves is much lower than how the world perceives us. We need to ensure that the boardrooms of large companies do not get infected by this negative perception and begin to hesitate as they come to India,” Kidwai told PTI in an interview. She was here in connection with global India meet
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She further said that the business leaders “need to continuously embark on an exercises to lift the perception (about India)”.
Although the domestic industry may be disappointed with the GDP growth rate falling to 6.5 per cent in 2011-12 fiscal, Kidwai said the rest of the world sees this as a “respectable growth rate”.
Kidwai, who is also senior Vice President of FICCI, said that the global companies are “attracted to India's economy ... believes that India cannot be ignored, although it is not easy to operate in the country, they are prepared to still give it a serious look”.
Industry leaders like Azim Premji and N R Narayana Murthy had expressed concerns on the pace of policy decisions and even described the nation as leaderless.
Dismissing the concerns over issues like corruption, Kidwai said, “We have lived with corruption, we have lived without retail, we were doing 9 per cent growth. So these can't be the things which suddenly deliver growth. Unfortunately, these few things have become barometers of the perception”.
