SPEECHES / STATEMENTS 

PM’s address at the NDTV profit business leadership awards

July 28, 2006, New Delhi

“I am truly delighted to be here this evening at this glittering function. I am impressed by the effort that Prannoy and his team have put in to identify and reward some of our outstanding business leaders and firms. I am particularly happy that this event is being held this week. I was reminded earlier this week of the fact that it is now 15 years since we launched some of the most far-reaching reform of our economy. The fruits of that effort 15 monsoons ago are here before us, in this hall!

I compliment each one of the enterprises and individuals who have been nominated for today’s awards. It is indeed striking how few of the nominees today were even around 15 years ago. I am told that of the 82 nominees you have in 14 different categories, only 30 were in business in 1991. 52 of your 82 nominees are the children of a new India!

Indeed, of the five distinguished business leaders you have nominated for the award of Business Leader of the Year, only one would have been recognized as a captain of industry in 1991. In fact, two of your nominees in this category belong to sectors that would not even have been considered for such awards in 1991.

Indian business has come a long way in a short span of time. I salute the spirit of enterprise, creativity and solid hard work that all of you have come to exemplify. May your tribe flourish.

Only last week I was recalling how some of our distinguished business leaders felt concerned about what we were seeking to do in 1991. Some friends brought together a group of naysayers, whom the media dubbed as the “Bombay Club”. A columnist called them “the nattering nawabs of negativism”! They were “Prophets of Doom” whose prophecies mercifully never came true!

Those who worried in the early 1990s that Indian business would not be in a position to take on the challenge of globalisation have been decisively proved wrong by each one of you. The Indian economy has experienced unprecedented change and growth in the last two decades. You stand testimony to the competitive abilities of Indian enterprise. I am confident that 15 years from now you, and many more like you, will once again prove the `Prophets of Doom’ wrong! I have great faith in the innate creativity and enterprise of the Indian people.

I wonder if Prannoy imagined in 1991 that he would be a media baron 15 years later. We had not even anticipated in 1991 the kind of media revolution we have since then. Indeed, of the 14 categories of nominees you have today, as many as 6 were not even areas of business activity in India in 1991.

If you analyse the ownership structure of your 82 nominee firms, I am sure you will find that a majority of them are run by first, or at most second, generation businessmen. Few of the great business leaders of the 1970s would figure even in the top 100 today. The few who have faced competition, survived and have grown in size and stature, like my friend Ratan Tata. They exemplify the best and the brightest of Indian business.

All this makes my heart swell with pride and confidence. And yet, Ladies and Gentlemen, leaders of business and commerce, captains of industry, there is a lot more to be done. We can hardly rest on our laurels.

The burden of late industrialization, the wages of slow agrarian transformation, the consequences of inadequate investment in education, health care, urban and rural infrastructure stare us in our face. The low rate of employment generation in the organized sector, the mismatch between the supply of skilled labour and demand. Each of these is a Himalayan challenge that we must surmount. With each hurdle that we cross, we will be able to run faster.

I do think that in the past we did not give agriculture and the social sectors the attention they deserved and continue to deserve. We must increase household incomes in rural areas. We must increase agricultural productivity. We must invest more in our rural economy. We need both investment and reform in our educational and health care systems. We must reform the public sector and ensure better delivery of services to all, especially the poor. We have to improve urban governance and vastly improve the quality of life in our cities, especially in slums and jhuggi-jhonpris.

It is the solemn responsibility of Government to address each one of these challenges. But it is necessary that the more privileged sections of our society should also do their bit. Together, we must rid our ancient land but an young nation, of the scourge of poverty, ignorance and disease. There is so much pent up creative energy waiting to burst out and I am sure it will make a difference. We must pursue policies that help unleash this innate creativity and enterprise of our people. Nothing else should divert our attention and our energy. It is unfortunate that each time we are faced with the opportunity to leap forward, we allow ourselves to be drawn back.

I don’t have to remind an audience like this that change is the only constant in the world that we live in. The challenge before each of one of us is to manage change. To get a grip on the processes of change. Help people adapt to change. This is the biggest challenge facing the political leadership of our country. We have to recognize that the world is changing, understand how it is changing, and learn to deal with the consequences of that change. We have to show the way forward to our own people and help them understand the nature of change underway and help them deal with it in their lives.

As I said last year in my Independence Day speech - there comes a time in the history of a nation when it can be said that the time has come to make history. We are today at the threshold of such an era. The world wants India to do well and take our rightful place in the comity of nations. There are no external constraints on our development. If there are any hurdles, they are internal.

It is our duty to work together to deal with these internal hurdles. Some we have inherited from a distant past. Some are of our own making. Some hurdles are institutional. Some others are created by inertia and old ways of thinking. The hurdles on the ground have to be removed by those of us who are in the Government. The hurdles in our mind have to be erased by each one of us, especially by you in the media. I sincerely hope our media, our civil society and our business leaders will strengthen our hands in this sacred task of nation building.

I congratulate each one of the nominees and winners today. I hope you will seek new goals, attain new heights and bring greater glory not only to your firms but to society at large. May your path be blessed.”