CII unveils 10-point agenda to revive growth

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SME Times News Bureau | 04 Jun, 2020
Newly appointed CII President Uday Kotak on Thursday said as the coronavirus pandemic has changed the status quo of the world, the corporate sector now needs to focus on managing growth, lives and livelihoods while considering the challenges associated with life after the pandemic.

Presenting a 10-point roadmap to revive growth in the post-Covid world, Kotak also said that growth is a necessity now and it should lead to creations of jobs.

"Growth is a necessity that should lead to creation of more jobs while CII works as a knowledge partner with the government for building self-reliant and competitive India that is deeply engaged with the world," he said at a media briefing here on Thursday.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has laid out a 10-point road map to revive growth and navigate the challenges of loss of lives and livelihoods posed by the global pandemic COVID-19 that has forced countries across the world to reset their growth paths. The industry body's theme for 2020-21 is 'Building India for a New World: Lives, Livelihood, Growth'.

"We are in uncharted territories and are grappling to find new ways to brave the changes. But we are confident of the resilience of Indian industry and its innovative skills to beat every such challenge", Kotak said.

One of the major features of CII's roadmap is the protection of lives and livelihoods.

It said that as India restarts, Centre, state and local authorities must work together to ramp up testing infrastructure along with robust identification of containment zones and an agile health and safety response to control the coronavirus spread.

As 80 per cent of the employment is in the unorganised sector with no social security, addressing the protection of livelihoods will need measures to increase formalisation of employment through labour and regulatory reforms which would also encourage businesses to move towards the formal sector.

Industry will need to work in partnership with the governments to help create more jobs while bringing in more of the workforce under the formal sector, CII said.

Further, prioritisation of health and education is another major target. A long-term strategy of dealing with future pandemics through high quality preventive healthcare, focus on nutrition, sanitation and hygiene needs to be established.

India has a tremendous shortage of healthcare professionals at all levels, said the CII agenda, adding that education plays a key role in achieving the required levels of standards in delivery of healthcare, nutrition and hygiene.

Financial stability should also be an important factor while deciding the fiscal stance, according to CII, and it said that finding the fine balance will be of utmost importance at this crucial juncture as various stressed sectors of the economy will look for relief and stimulus packages.

A battered industry will need support from the government in many forms, including investment-friendly policies that will drive demand and measures to help tide over the liquidity crisis, it said.