16.3.13

Ratan Tata on India's growth story


Ratan Tata said he expects India to reestablish its economic growth at over 7% in the next couple of years but the economy will not be able to achieve the over-8% growth rate it had reached prior to the 2008-09 global financial crisis.
The chairman emeritus of the Tata Group said that the recent steps taken by the government have restored investors’ confidence in the country, but more needs to be done for the economy to recover.
He noted that efforts to control inflation, as well as wide prevalence of scams, resulted in Indian economic growth slowing down to 5 or sub-5%.
“To many, it has been like a recession,” he added.
“I think we will re-establish at an over 7% growth rate in couple of years driven by the fact that we have got pent up demand in the country,” Tata said.
“But it is not going to be as attractive as it has been in the past,” said Tata, who retired from the group last year, during a dialogue session with students at the Singapore Management University (SMU).
Responding to a question on recent measures to boost the economy in the Budget for the financial year 2013-14, he said: “One must ask is it enough or is it too late. My own feeling is that some of the confidence in the Indian economy, perhaps amongst investors, is restored. But there is a lot more that needs to be done if India is to move back to the visibility and the attraction that it had some years ago.”
“May be, just moderate moves are not going to be enough to undo the damage that has been done over the last few years,” Tata added.
The measures in the most recent budget has “are very moderate and perhaps, signs of moving in the right direction,” he told some 500 students, academics and business community at the dialogue session.

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