India Inc tells Govt: thanks for no law on quotas, we will help

Kumar quoted the NCMP, which states that the government was ‘‘very sensitive to the issue of affirmative action, including reservation, in the private sector’’ but does not mention a legislation for reservations.

The government assurance was mentioned in a joint statement signed by 21 top industrialists that was sent to the Minister on May 25. It said, ‘‘We are reassured to learn from the government that it has no intention of resorting to legislative action to impose a statutory obligation of reservation on industry.’’

The statement was forwarded to the minister by Ratan Tata and was signed by Anu Aga, Rahul Bajaj, Kumara Mangalam Birla, Jamshyd Godrej, Narayana Murthy, Deepak Parekh and others.

While agreeing to the need for affirmative action, the statement mentions, ‘‘The imperatives of a competitive economy require that industry places a premium on merit. However, we also recognise that merit is not a natural phenomenon but shaped by social circumstances.’’

‘‘The need is not just to provide jobs but also incubate the emergence of a robust entrepreneurial class of youth from the SCs and STs,’’ it added.

The industrialists have offered to assist in providing quality education, facilities for skill development, ‘‘propelled with innovative use of modern management systems and IT tools.’’

Stating that employees have always been selected on merit with equal opportunity as a policy, the industrialists committed to expand their activities to ‘‘scholarships, company-run private schools, partnership with government schools, vocational training in-house as well as in partnership with ITIs, vendor development programmes, and so on.’’

On the joint statement, Meira Kumar said, ‘‘This is the first step in this long journey…There was a time when industrialists were vehemently opposed to the idea of affirmative action, including reservation. But now they have come on a common platform.’’