Good Governance vital enabler for growth: CII
"The share that the lowest strata of the society gets from growth and development in a state, indicates the level of governance", said Mr Bhupinder S Hooda, CM, Haryana while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) NR's Conference on ‘Driving Growth of the North: Good Governance, Sustainability & Social Inclusivity’ alongside its Annual Regional Meeting at New Delhi today. Good Governance emerged as a vital link for economic growth, sustainability and social inclusivity. Mr Hooda added that Haryana has done exceedingly well on the 4 key development indicators ie Per Capita Investment, Per Capita Income, Per Capita expenditures and resource mobilization.
Elaborating on the importance of education in the knowledge economy of today, Mr Hooda said that education can be an important tool for empowerment and inclusive growth. He further elaborated on his plans of making Haryana a global education hub. He also released ‘Endeavour’, a compendium of CII’s Affirmative Action initiatives in Northern Region.
Lack of trust in the institutions of the country is making the process of economic reforms more cumbersome, said Mr Arun Maira, Member, Planning Commission, Government of India. The focus should be on reforming the institutions, as else it could impact the India growth story. This in turn could lead to social unrest in the long run. Citizens should be part of the governance reform process, he added.
Focus on capacity building of leadership and strengthening the institutions is critical to improving the governance levels, said Mr Jayant Chaudhary, Member of Parliament – Lok Sabha. The need of the hour is to build consensus among the political parties of the country and reforming the delivery institutions, he added.
Mr R Sri Kumar, Vigilance Commissioner, Government of India said that in the democracy, public interest is supreme and participation of the concerned stakeholders is critical. He called for proactive, predictive and participative vigilance in place of preventive vigilance. Citizen empowerment programme like VIGEYE may help in checking the corruption level, he added.
Emphasizing on the importance of good governance, Mr Ajay S Shriram, Vice President, CII & Chairman & Senior Managing Director, DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd said that simplification of procedures, speedy and timely decision making process, capacity building in executing, better coordination amongst the political parties and centre – state coordination are key to reforming our governance structure.
Addressing the session, Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Corporate Service Ltd, said that with one million people entering the workforce every month, it is important to provide gainful employment and also appropriate education, skills and training to the youth. Appreciating the Government’s National Manufacturing policy, Mr Munjal said that going forward the onus of providing additional employment and livelihood opportunities will lie on the manufacturing sector, and hence the policy should be implemented in a mission mode.
Dwelling on environmental sustainability Mr Harpal Singh, Chairman, Nanhi Chhaan Foundation said that often products and services are priced at less than the ecological cost, and the poor often end up paying for this gap. Therefore the accounting for sustainability needs to be explored. Highlighting the issues of gender imbalance, Mr Singh said that the sex ratio which has declined from 980 at independence to 914 is a great cause of concern. India cannot achieve its development goals without leveraging the potential of half of its human capital – its women.
Mr Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, The Indian Express emphasized that sustainability and social inclusivity need to go hand in hand. Addressing the issue of whether there was a tradeoff between enhancing efficiency and generating employment, he summed up that efficiency leads to growth which leads to prosperity, which in turn leads to further employment creation.
India has made its mark in the information technology sector, and IT should be increasingly leveraged to make our governance process transparent and accountable said Mr Malvinder Mohan Singh, Chairman, CII Northern Region & Executive Chairman, Fortis Healthcare Ltd while addressing the delegates at the Annual Conference. He emphasized on good governance as a necessary condition for economic growth and sustainable development and a catalyst for achieving social inclusivity.
Mr Jayant Davar, Deputy Chairman, CII Northern Region and Co-Chairman & Managing Director, Sandhar Technologies Ltd pointed out that economic growth which does not suitably address ecological issues is no longer a sustainable growth model. He pointed out that studies have shown that a 4% increase in global temperature could negatively impact the GDP by 1.5-5%, it could even be as high as 10% in some of the developing economies. He emphasized on the need for focusing on renewable energy, low carbon economy and water conservation.
The deliberations brought out the specific road map of key drivers to achieve growth and development in northern region. These include focus on good governance, gender equality, environment, green and clean growth, civil society & education.