FLO Industry Round Table “Decoding India’s Economic Challenge”

FLO Industry roundtable witnessed the doyens from the industry address a very pertinent topic ‘Decoding India’s Economic Challenge’ on July 7, 2021. They shared their insights on the way forward to India’s road to economic recovery.
The speakers were Mr Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India; Ms Preetha Reddy, Executive Vice Chairperson of the Apollo Hospitals Group; Ms Charu Malhotra. Co-Founder and Managing Director, Primus Partners; Mr Kaushik Shaparia, Chief Country Officer, Deutsche Bank Indi and Mr Naveen Munjal, Managing Director at Hero Electric Vehicles pvt Ltd.

Ms Lata Venkatesh, Business Journalist, CNBC TV moderated the session.
FLO President Ujjwala Singhania said, “The aim of organizing this roundtable meeting is to ensure Industry fraternity’s involvement and deliberation along with decision-making bodies and think tanks for collective collaboration to record the meeting outcome and present it to Govt.”

Mr Sanjeev Sanyal said that the priority is to unlock the whole thing because the “game does not start unless the whole thing is unlocked”. “We should keep the momentum of vaccination. We need to do surveillance and testing so that there is a quick response to the 3rd wave if it comes. The budget announced in February 2021, needs to be implemented to reap the benefits from the planned developmental work.,” he added.

Talking about the consumption situation of the current market scenario, “Challenges still exist. There have been lots of uncertainty. In automotive sector, going forward there will be a lot of hockey-stick growth rather than a linear growth. There will be a transition toward green mobility.”

Ms Preetha Reddy said, “The industry has been hurt tremendously. Now, the industry should regroup and reinvest on infrastructure. Right amount from support from the government is needed and industry will be able to effectively contribute towards the GDP of the nation. The service sector definitely needs to be strengthened to make the economy more vibrant.”

Mr Kaushik Shaparia quoted Winston Churchill that a crisis shouldn’t be wasted and said, “It is more about the timing than direction at this point. The government and RBI should come to a similar understanding as to which problem needs to be solved immediately and what is the long-time trend to which we need to align ourselves.” He also talked about the need for policy changes so that the execution of policies is faster to solve the issues.

Ms Charu Malhotra said, “Skilling and reskilling is a priority at this juncture. FLO has done a lot of work in mentoring women own businesses, especially in the pandemic. Women-owned businesses and micro-enterprises have withstood immense shock and they need more support in terms of finance, capital, and marketing. The CSR legislation need to be tweaked and the women suppliers are linked to corporate value chains under CSR.”

Governing Body Members Jyotsna Angara, Ajitha Yogesh and Ruchika Gupta introduced the speakers at the virtual Industry Round table.