Ambitious Agenda

HAVING established itself as the most considered voice in Indian industry, the high-profile Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is talking really big.

To mark a new era in industry's service to the nation, new CII President Shekhar Datta launched a National Agenda for the country on May 1 which concentrates—for the first time in its history—on electoral reforms and assorted wide-ranging dos and don'ts for the Government.

The 'National Agenda 1996-97', released during Datta's first formal meeting as CII president, devotes a major part on issues that are not strictly economic. This, according to Datta, is because of the need for a countrywide initiative and consensus on a national policy which focuses on building a new work ethos and culture and brings discipline to the forefront of public action. Says Datta: "The industry is an important player in society and is thus obliged to pay adequate attention to social and electoral matters as it does to economic and industry-related issues."

 In a stark departure from the norm, the CII president suggests ways on how the Government should function as well as spells out its composition. Seeking a reorganisation in the Government, Datta is of the opinion that the Prime Minister should be supported by 11 integrated ministries to bring in synergy, coordination, speed and efficiency to the system. According to him, these ministries should be defence, space and atomic energy; energy; environment; external relations (external affairs and commerce); finance, planning and programme implementation; food, agriculture and civil supplies; home; human resource development; industry; law, justice and parliamentary affairs; and transport.

 And to have a fast-track growth right from the beginning, the CII has even suggested what the new Government should do in the first 100 days—it should pay attention to key sectors, including public sector reforms, electoral reforms and financial reforms amongst others. "We want to work closely with the Government in all sectors," says Datta. Thus, the CII theme for the year reads: "Enduring alliances—sustainable growth."

The 58-year-old Datta believes in total and positive change and plans to give a new image to the CII during his tenure: "We want to be a catalyst with the government in the development of the nation and the globalisation of India, thus building up a strong economic base." And he is not particularly worried about which government comes to power. For, Datta feels that by and large all political parties have a consensus over reforms and is certain that whichever party forms the government, it will take it to the logical end: "A stage has come when economic issues have become insulated to political upheavals and thus, economic issues will be an important part of action of all parties."

 According to Datta, the relegation of economic issues to the backseat in the CII agenda is primarily due to the fact that "electoral and judicial reforms were also the crying needs of the country at present and industry, being an important vehicle of change, had to raise its voice in this direction." Calling for a change in the electoral process, the CII feels that in line with the new direction brought in by the Election Commission, the Government should speed up electoral reforms, favouring state funding of elections and setting qualification norms for candidates to prevent people with criminal records from contesting. Similar radical changes have also been suggested for the judiciary.

For the industry, it suggests 10 key action areas which include technology and R&D, quality and productivity, competitiveness, HRD, consumer affairs, environment, social development, exports and labour relations. For the CII, priority areas for the year would be infrastructure and public sector reforms.

The 70-point agenda paper might be difficult to achieve, but Datta and the CII seem quite confident. "Most of the measures of the economic reforms were implemented in about 30 days, then why can't we achieve this with the time we have?" questions Datta. While CII intends to set a trend and start a movement and a quest for change, it remains to be seen what is actually done or achieved within the stipulated time. And when Datta and the CII top brass think that "if you aim for the moon, you would at least reach the treetop," one has to wait and see how many treetops are scaled this year as they have a lot to do.