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India must rethink economic strategy

Former finance minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the time has come for India to rethink its economic strategy in the context of global changes and adjustment of policies and programmes to the changing dynamic world.

Addressing the second annual convocation of the Institute for Integrated Learning in Management in New Delhi, Dr Manmohan Singh said India cannot remain immune from changes taking place all over the world. It needs to evolve strategies which take advantage of these changes and try to minimise the risks involved.

He called upon industry to face the new challenges and use the opportunities thrown up by liberalisation. He said if stalwarts like Jamshedji Tata and G D Birla could succeed in the most unfavourable conditions, he saw no reason why new entrepreneurs and managers cannot do much better. They have to only shed their inferiority complex, he said. In this context, he cited the example of silicon valley where nearly half of the people were of Indian origin.

While agreeing that profitability is an important objective of any business enterprise, Dr Singh said the managers should not lose sight of the interest of consumer.

For success in any enterprise in the competitive world, they have also to pay greater attention to productivity, quality and price of goods and environment.

He called upon entrepreneurs and managers to develop a global vision for faster economic development to tackle the problem of poverty and illiteracy. Dr Singh said that there was no reason why India could not become an economic giant when small countries of Southeast Asia have made rapid progress in record time.