New Delhi: Hailing the clear mandate given by voters to the BJP-led NDA, leading lights of corporate India hoped incoming government would boost economic growth and create jobs to herald a “golden era of change”.
Hinduja Group Chairman Srichand Hinduja described Narendra Modi's massive mandate as a vote for stability that will put India back on the path of high growth.
“Modi has a proven track-record of governance in Gujarat and people have reposed enormous faith in his leadership. I have little doubt that he will fulfil the aspirations of millions of people,” Hinduja said.
Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said, “This is vote for stability, progress, and good governance.”
“The most important thing the new government must do is to accelerate economic growth. So, reining in of inflation, fiscal deficit and unemployment are of paramount importance as is stoking of an environment that is conducive to a revival of investor optimism,” Birla told PTI.
HDFC vice-chairman and MD Keki Mistry said the decisive mandate can help usher decisive reforms in a slew of areas like taxation, subsidies, improving investor confidence and resolving the black money issues among others.
“The first thing that the new government should do is to bring in tax-friendly laws. We cannot have more Vodafone-like issues. The new government must find a solution to all the Vodafone like retro-tax issues. It also should bring down the effective tax rates but improve tax compliance,” Mistry told PTI.
TCS CEO N Chandrasekaran said: “Upgrading the country's infrastructure through investment will help boost growth rates as well as give a fillip to many industries including the IT industry, which can tap the talent available in Tier II and Tier III cities and create sustainable jobs”.
United Breweries Group Chairman Vijay Mallya tweeted:
“Finally looking forward to a strong and stable Narendra Modi led BJP Government with an absolute majority and no coalition pressures”.
Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw on micro-blogging site Twitter said: “Modi has outperformed all electoral forecasts n (and) he will outperform as India's 14th Prime Minister. We are now entering golden era of change”.
Apollo Hospitals Group Chairman Prathap C Reddy said that the new government needs to drastically increase public spending on health, create a roadmap for universal health coverage, corporatise medical education and take decisive steps to remove the barriers of accessibility, cost and quality that continue to plague India's healthcare system.
Hero MotoCorp Joint MD Sunil Kant Munjal said there is a need for the automotive industry to continue to get support (in the form of excise duty cuts to continue) for a while because this has a big multiplier effect on the economy.
ICICI Bank's head Chanda Kochhar said that the elections have delivered a clear mandate for governance and growth, which should be leveraged for decisive action that will rebuild confidence in the economy.
“The immediate priorities would be to resolve issues in existing projects, clearing pending receivables to the corporate sector from government agencies, resolve the retrospective taxation issue and bring clarity around tax laws, begin the implementation of GST, and take steps to contain inflation.”
Industry body CII said that the outcome of the General Elections reaffirms India's vibrant and dynamic democracy and would greatly help to revive growth and investor sentiments.
“That (FDI in multi-brand retail) is something that we feel is desirable for India. We will take it up with the government and articulate and share our views,” CII President Ajay Shriram said.
Highlighting expectations of auto sector's, Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R C Bhargava said: “I think at the moment the industry is in such shape that removing that concession (excise duty cut) would be very negative, so I hope that will continue”.
