Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman Mukesh Ambani today said that Mumbai belongs to all Indians and its cabbies are trapped in the licence raj. What we all have to realise that we are Indians first and India is above everything. I think whether it is Mumbai or Delhi or Chennai or Kolkata,it belongs to all Indians. And within that,there has to be equal opportunity. I think the biggest challenge for us in the coming decade is about employment and earning opportunities. This is nothing but a manifestation that we are not moving fast enough. We in the corporate sector got out of the licence raj but the poor taxiwallah is still stuck in the licence raj, he said. Ambani was participating in a panel discussion at the launch of Not by Reason Alone: The Politics of Change in India,by Rajya Sabha MP and former bureaucrat N K Singh,organised by The Express Group and LSE India Observatory in association with Reliance Industries Ltd,Tata Group,Confederation of Indian Industry (CII),NDTV,HT Media Limited & Penguin Books India. The book is published by the Express Group and Penguin. Amidst a disastrous global downturn,Ambani said,Indias balance sheet is strong,consumer numbers are growing and the consumer is debt-free. Therefore,Indian economy should have a 9 per cent default growth rate but our potential really is a high double-digit growth, he said. What we have seen so far is the announcement that the old world,as we knew it,has come to an end. The world as a whole will restructure itself. I personally believe that this is an opportunity to rebalance the world. and within that India is at the doorstep of a new developmental model. And this will take time and we should not rush into things. Indias strengths in this new world are going to be its soft skills, he said. Singhs book it argues that Indias current economic and political change could not be explained by reason alone was launched at the London School of Economics on the 60th anniversary of Indias Republic Day. Singh,who is also playing a leading part in the institutional reconstruction of economically sick Bihar,admits that Indias huge diversities and fractious politics often strain the institutional pathways. And reason alone often lends us into a state of pessimism. He argues: We need not have to be reasonable sometimes. we need to be compassionate,creative,altruistic and otherwise unreasonable to ensure that the politics of change stays on course. Moderated by Barkha Dutt,Group Editor,English News,NDTV,the discussion panel included Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia,Oxford University Chancellor Chris Patten,Lord Meghnad Desai,Lord Nicholas Stern of the LSE and Financial Express Managing Editor M K Venu. Shobhana Bhartia,Chairperson and Editorial Director of HT Media Ltd,and Shekhar Gupta,Editor-in-Chief of The Express Group,too spoke. Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel,Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal,Lord Swraj Paul of the Caparo Group,Hero Honda CEO Pawan Munjal,Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director,Kotak Bank,Uday Kotak and Sanjay Newatia of the Tata Group attended the function. Asked about the current economic slowdown,Ahluwalia said that before the global recession,India was growing at 9 per cent and during the last two years,amidst the crisis,it averaged at 7 per cent,better than most other world economies. The most important thing is that we have managed the downturn well, he said. Ahluwalia said the book rightly brings out that its an issue of dysfunctionality of certain types of interventions and on the other hand sensible interventions. He admitted that reform is all about restructuring of the role of government and is an ongoing endeavour. Lord Chris Patten,Chancellor of Oxford University and the last Governor General of Hong Kong,provided an interesting comparison between India and China. Even though Indian exports about a seventh of marketable goods compared to China,India has not suffered from a bamboo Gulag it didnt have a man-made famine,it doesnt lock up dissidents,despite the huge ethnic and geographical diversity,it has held together,and so far nobody has identified one single member of al-Qaeda within India. It seems to me that it has some relationship to the innate stability of democracy in India, said Patten,I think thats a triumph for its political system. Patten pointed out that India has been more successful in developing global brands and multinationals and has also been more successful in developing its own technical innovations rather then buying them from abroad. Desai warned if India has to eradicate poverty,it has to industrialise quickly at a growth rate of 11-12 per cent and provide a proper framework to develop large-scale industries. Stressing the need for a transition from farmland to industry,he pointed out that people in villages are stuck in low-productivity jobs. Solutions have to be found so that Nano-like controversies do not arise again,he said. Ambani said Nano was an exception. Farmers are emotionally attached to their land,he said,and it must not be taken over by government fiats. Farmers land must only be taken over with their consent and mutual agreement,he said. He pointed out that in the next 15 years,another 12-15 million young Indians will enter the job market and will need proper skills to get into jobs. Huge investments,he said,are therefore needed in the education sector. At this point,Barkha Dutt threw a question to Nita Ambani in the audience who made an interesting point about corporate responsibility to develop institutions of excellence in the country. The young educated youth are actually the wealth and pride of India and if we can harness their aspirations,they are going to create a new India, she said. Education is the key,summed up Dutt. Do you want to say anything, she asked Mukesh Ambani. No,I never say anything after Nita, he said. The LSE Old Theatre burst out in laughter.
