Govt seeking bids for 8,000 km of highways
The Hindu Business Line, December 23, 2009, Page 15
Manufacturing should post double-digit growth: Montek.
Our Bureau, Kolkata
The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways is seeking bids for about 8,000 km of highways contracts in the current financial year against less than 2,000 km a year during the previous three years, according to Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission.
The manufacturing sector should record double-digit growth for the country's overall GDP to grow by about nine per cent, Mr Ahluwalia said while speaking over a video conference on the second day of the National Conference on Leadership organised by the CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership here on Tuesday.
“The Planning Commission has consistently maintained a view that India cannot have a nine per cent growth rate relying only on growth in services sector. Our medium-term projection says that manufacturing should record a double digit growth and should be above 10-11 per cent to paint a consistent picture,” he said.
Government intervention was important to help the manufacturing sector record such growth rates, he observed. Providing energy, transport and infrastructure at competitive rates was probably the single most important contribution that the Government could make.
“We need a financing mechanism for manufacturing and for that we need a well functioning private financial market, both banking and non-banking companies. It requires high quality regulation and moderating the fiscal deficit,” he said.
Building of roads was a major Government programme which was interrupted.
“We hardly got any bids for the road projects in the last quarter. We have reviewed the position internally with the Ministry of Roads,” he said and added, “One year from now, we can definitely say that development in road, power, telecom has picked up. 3G auction has let the door open to a lot of investments in telecom sector over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Mr Ahluwalia also highlighted the need for modifications in labour laws to help boost the manufacturing sector. “Indian labour laws are unduly restricted. To stimulate labour intensive manufacturing we got to have a labour environment where companies will be happy hiring 50,000 workers. Today there is huge reluctance among companies to expose themselves to such a large labour force,” he pointed out.
This was a political sensitive issue and called for Government intervention.
“The Government should engage unions in debating this matter. If I am right then unions should be in favour of that as it will lead to expansion of the organised labour force in the country.
“However, we are failing to convince the unions that a modification in labour laws is in their favour. We need to do more work on this and debate more widely as a vast majority of people are not aware that this could be an important constraint,” he added.
The Hindu Business Line, December 23, 2009, Page 15
Manufacturing should post double-digit growth: Montek.
Our Bureau, Kolkata
The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways is seeking bids for about 8,000 km of highways contracts in the current financial year against less than 2,000 km a year during the previous three years, according to Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission.
The manufacturing sector should record double-digit growth for the country's overall GDP to grow by about nine per cent, Mr Ahluwalia said while speaking over a video conference on the second day of the National Conference on Leadership organised by the CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership here on Tuesday.
“The Planning Commission has consistently maintained a view that India cannot have a nine per cent growth rate relying only on growth in services sector. Our medium-term projection says that manufacturing should record a double digit growth and should be above 10-11 per cent to paint a consistent picture,” he said.
Government intervention was important to help the manufacturing sector record such growth rates, he observed. Providing energy, transport and infrastructure at competitive rates was probably the single most important contribution that the Government could make.
“We need a financing mechanism for manufacturing and for that we need a well functioning private financial market, both banking and non-banking companies. It requires high quality regulation and moderating the fiscal deficit,” he said.
Building of roads was a major Government programme which was interrupted.
“We hardly got any bids for the road projects in the last quarter. We have reviewed the position internally with the Ministry of Roads,” he said and added, “One year from now, we can definitely say that development in road, power, telecom has picked up. 3G auction has let the door open to a lot of investments in telecom sector over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Mr Ahluwalia also highlighted the need for modifications in labour laws to help boost the manufacturing sector. “Indian labour laws are unduly restricted. To stimulate labour intensive manufacturing we got to have a labour environment where companies will be happy hiring 50,000 workers. Today there is huge reluctance among companies to expose themselves to such a large labour force,” he pointed out.
This was a political sensitive issue and called for Government intervention.
“The Government should engage unions in debating this matter. If I am right then unions should be in favour of that as it will lead to expansion of the organised labour force in the country.
“However, we are failing to convince the unions that a modification in labour laws is in their favour. We need to do more work on this and debate more widely as a vast majority of people are not aware that this could be an important constraint,” he added.
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