Swadeshi club calls for Indian MNCs

NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Two of the country's top-notch CEOs Rahul Bajaj and Suresh Krishna, urged the government to draft policies which promote...

NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Two of the country’s top-notch CEOs Rahul Bajaj and Suresh Krishna, urged the government to draft policies which promote `desi’ multi-nationals and called upon Indian industry to rise to the challenges of globalisation. "I want to see a 100 Indian multi-national companies by the year 2020" said Rahul Bajaj, chairman and managing director, Bajaj Auto. "The country needs government policies which promote the creation of Indian MNCs. We should not unduly favour foreign companies" he added.

Suresh Krishna, chairman and managing director, Sundaram Fasteners said that India could be built by Indians only. "We can import technology but ultimately it is Indian entrepreneurship which will make the difference" he added.

Addressing CII’s `National Conference on 50 Years of Indian Industry’, Bajaj said Indian industrialists should import technology without necessarily giving up ownership and control of their companies.

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He, however stressed that Indian businessmen were not asking for the protectionist regime of the 1960s and 70s. "We do not need old-fashioned protection, we have had enough of that" he said.

"But the point should be stressed that the government needs to formulate policies which keep in mind the interests of Indian industry" he added.

On the future of Indian industry, Bajaj said "We are already the seventh largest economy in the world and soon we will move up the ladder" he said.

Bajaj said domestic industry suffered from a lack of work culture – an inability to incorporate team culture and a lack of leadership skills.

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Suresh Krishna of Sundaram Fasteners felt that the country’s businessmen had not woken-up to the realities of globalisation.