Watch our Keynote speaker, Shri Suresh Prabhu at the #LeadingEdge2018
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00:00 Good afternoon friends. I am very happy and relieved by the fact that my very dear friend
00:12 and illustrious colleague has spoken before me. I am relieved because he has covered a
00:19 very vast canvas and in a very nice articulated way. So I can only say I fully endorse his
00:26 views. So normally when you have a proposer of resolution, he speaks the most and the
00:37 seconder has to only say I seconded. And as he has very correctly pointed out, and both
00:46 of us also share the same professional qualification, we are chartered accountants. So normally
00:51 you don't do re-audit. As we know, the two key elements I was just looking at it, one
01:05 is outlook business, I can say business outlook. Just to change this little bit, I can very
01:12 clearly say without a sense of exaggeration that business outlook for India is extremely
01:21 positive and is going to improve as we go along. One is driven by macro issues which
01:31 you see very well articulated and always what matters, it matters in business, it matters
01:40 in sports, it matters in all field. Even countries are driven by leadership. So clearly you will
01:48 see the leadership driving the change as so much has been accomplished in last five years
01:55 and much more is going to be accomplished in another ten years. So you can clearly see
02:00 after ten years, India would be clearly in the top league. I'm not saying the top most
02:07 economy, still will be the third largest economy, but will be still one of the large economies.
02:13 And to actually make it happen, we have prepared a five trillion, first to begin with the immediate
02:19 task, a five trillion dollar economy and in which 20% of that is going to come from industry
02:26 manufacturing. And detailed plan what will contribute to that one trillion dollar, which
02:31 sector, what will happen has also been planned with industry. And therefore industry's outlook
02:36 is pretty positive. They feel that we have to reach to this trillion dollar and they
02:40 are working on it. In fact I just inaugurated an exhibition on rubber industry. I was personally
02:45 impressed and actually speaking to remove my own ignorance about the industry, that
02:51 industry best in India are exporting products globally, synthetic rubber, many products
02:57 made out of that. So we sometimes underestimate our own accomplishment and therefore we can
03:03 clearly see a trillion dollar coming from that. Three trillion dollar of the five trillion
03:09 will come from services, 60%, for which we already identified 12 champion sectors and
03:15 thanks to the Prime Minister we already set aside cabinet approved 5,000 crores to revamp
03:19 those sectors. In agriculture, many initiatives have been taken, which will come in a one
03:26 trillion dollar of the remaining five trillion and that too we have now come out with the
03:30 first ever agriculture export policy. You can imagine agriculture, one of the big challenge
03:37 of any agriculture anywhere in the world, I was just meeting the Australian Minister.
03:41 It was saying you are not importing pulses. I said try to understand the political pulse
03:47 of India. We are making so much of pulses today and that was unimaginable even three
03:53 years ago, that India will ever import pulses, ever have, ever could stop importing pulses.
04:01 Today we are in a situation where we produce pulses more than what we can consume and this
04:07 is a kind of transformation that is happening in agriculture. But just imagine, the point
04:13 challenge is when we produce more, the farmer suffers, unlike in manufacturing services.
04:21 If the IDFC bank produces more, they will be happier, employees will get, but in this
04:26 case agriculture is a double whammy. That we have produced more, cost of production
04:31 has gone up and the prices fall. The only way we can address it, because you cannot,
04:36 you are not going to eat more rotis because the prices have fallen. You are not going
04:41 to eat more onions because prices have fallen. The only way we can make it happen is to export
04:46 it. First ever agriculture export policy has been approved by the cabinet and we have set
04:52 aside a target of 100 billion dollars of exports for agriculture. And how will it happen? We
04:58 already identified the clusters from where those products will be exported, specific
05:03 clusters for specific product. Like, because we are in Mumbai, bananas from Jalgaon, oranges,
05:11 it's not only from Nagpur, Nagpur should not be only known for Nitin Gadkari and Devendra
05:16 Furnish, oranges also come from Nagpur. So export of oranges from there, grapes from
05:21 Nasik, mangoes from Konkan and I can always say that the best mangoes in the world are
05:27 produced in Konkan because it's also from my previous constituency. But that is the
05:31 only area we've actually identified and we are going to export for which clusters have
05:36 been made. And that meeting, just one week after that, we had a meeting with all the
05:41 state governments, all the chief ministers, all the ministers, all the agriculture secretaries
05:46 and we are actually operationalizing it. So just imagine the outlook part. When we actually
05:51 do this happen, we export this, what will happen? Farmers will get more income, prices
05:58 will not get depressed and more money coming in the hands of farmers. That's the best way
06:02 to boost economy because they will, spending power will increase, the disposable income
06:07 being higher, they'll buy services, they'll also buy more of manufactured goods. So the
06:12 best way to boost economy is actually if almost 60% of the people are dependent on agriculture,
06:18 what, how do you increase their income levels? And when we say agriculture export, it's not
06:23 just agriculture per se. It's agriculture, plantation, horticulture, meat products and
06:30 milk products. As you know, in most of this, India has a real leading edge because all
06:36 these products we can actually export in a significant way. So this is what we are trying
06:41 to work on it. But as we do this macro level issue, something which I'll share with you,
06:46 we are trying to work, started working on something very interesting, first time, again.
06:51 We are trying to find out the growth in India comes because of, thanks to leadership as
06:57 I said, macroeconomic policy, but could also be further accelerated if you make it bottoms
07:03 up. If we can make each and every district of India as a growth center, the, obviously
07:09 if we increase the growth rate, it is 7%, 8% today. We make it 11 or 12%. Each district
07:17 growth rate, if it is increased by 3 or 4% more than normal, this obviously will lead
07:22 to India's growth rate increasing. To do that, we have selected six districts in India, from
07:27 five states. North, Varanasi, South, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, West, Maharashtra, Gokhand,
07:37 East, Madhavpur, and Solan, which is a Himachal because it's a hilly area. We already mapped
07:49 each of the district through Indian Institute of Management, National Council for Applied
07:53 Economic Research. That is already done. In fact, only other day, we already launched
07:58 it in Varanasi. Now we are going to second phase to find out, knowing the profile of
08:01 the district, how can increase the GDP of it by 3 or 4% more. Interestingly, that was
08:06 a revelation to me also. Sindhu, Durga and Ratnagiri, which are one district once upon
08:11 a time, undivided, almost the same agroclimatic condition, geography, everything same, has
08:18 a difference of 4-5%. So just imagine, and both the collector, we launched it only four
08:23 or five days back for the district in Mumbai. All the stakeholders were there. They were
08:27 saying we can easily increase by 7-8% more, but to begin with, increasing at 3 or 4% by
08:32 just finding out why other district are doing in what area. So just imagine, our districts
08:38 putting up more 3 or 4% more, all the aggregation of district is going to be the growth of India.
08:44 That is what has already started. We are working on it and that is going to bring in even the
08:51 concept of inclusive development. Why we shift to inclusive development? It will be integrated
08:55 into this. So this is what is happening. Second and important thing which all of will also
09:00 will give us a leading edge, India, under leadership of Prime Minister, has climbed
09:06 ease of doing business from 140 to almost to 77. We will take it to 50. But that is
09:12 one part nationally. That is what World Bank does it in most of the countries. We have
09:17 started doing and now World Bank wants to learn and work with us. How can we make each
09:21 and every district ease of doing business improve? Because all the plants that are located
09:26 manufacturing or even service activities somewhere in the district, if the district improvement
09:31 happens, it will lead to more growth. So we are trying to work on that. I will just to
09:36 the point that my dear friend Piyuji mentioned, integrating India into the global economy
09:42 is going to give us a real leading edge. At a time when today there are openings available
09:48 to India. If everything was set, there is no opening available. Today the world order
09:54 is getting disrupted. On one hand we are trying to make sure that we improve the world order.
10:01 So India organized mini-ministerial of 53 countries which have never happened so many.
10:06 Mini-ministerial normally 10, 15, 20 countries. We organized in Delhi on 19th and 20th of
10:12 March last year and that has now resulted in a new momentum for improvement of WTO and
10:17 the trading system. That is one part multilaterally. But we have an advantage because the world
10:22 order is undergoing some change. How do you take advantage of it? So we have prepared
10:27 a strategy. Our export to Africa only 8%. How can we increase the share? Latin America.
10:33 We have again very small little marginal place there. All these countries in Central Asia,
10:40 in Africa, in Latin America, in other parts of the world, we are actually trying to work
10:45 with them and even willing to sign FTAs with them. Now the challenge of FTA, this is something
10:51 which our industry always keeps saying, that when you sign FTA, industry always is not
10:56 so happy. So first time we are doing is new template for signing FTA. We'll never sign
11:02 an FTA unless it is endorsed by the industry. And to do that we appointed three independent
11:08 agencies because right now we are negotiating and all the leaders, including my Prime Minister
11:13 said we like to conclude it soon. We are working that on a pattern that three independent agencies,
11:21 reputed. We'll talk to the industry. So we are not leaving it to the officers to say
11:25 that this is what industry's view is. Independently we'll find out. So that will lead to more
11:30 integration but more benefits to Indian industry to increase it. Again, we are not saying that
11:36 others should suffer and we should gain, but we always cannot also agree that we suffer
11:41 and others gain. So we can make out a win-win agreement, win-win situation and therefore
11:45 we are trying to work on it. I'm very happy to say that I'm looking at a time that we
11:51 have one sector which has been one of the great success story of Prime Minister Modi's
11:56 sector besides so many. We have Puget has mentioned correctly electricity, many, many.
12:01 But one sector I'll just mention because that's my current responsibility. In aviation, India
12:07 has done a phenomenal job. We have been able to reach out to far corners of India. It was
12:13 in unimaginable only about four years ago. We have concluded yesterday, today event,
12:20 the first ever global aviation summit with all the players participating in it. It has
12:25 never happened anywhere in the world before. Almost all the 86 or actually end of the day
12:30 89 countries participated in it. And what are we doing? We are saying roadmap for manufacturing
12:37 of aircrafts in India. Hundred new airports with almost $65 of investment. Building a
12:44 ecosystem wherein MROs and all other facilities will happen in India. We'll train people
12:50 to cater to this growing demand, but not just for India, but for global situation. And therefore
12:56 the International Civil Aviation Organization chairman was here. He said this is the best
13:02 opportunity for India to offer skills to rest of the world. And that is what we are trying
13:06 to do. We have prepared a first ever air cargo policy, which will bring a new dimension to
13:12 growth of aviation. Because passenger traffic has grown by almost 20% for the last almost
13:17 four and a half years. But now we'll bring in a growth from cargo also. At a time when
13:22 we already have announced agriculture export policy, so cargo will again drive this growth.
13:27 So just imagine one sector of aviation, which has brought in so much of change because we
13:32 always seen is a real connectivity, road connectivity, digital connectivity, or even Prime Minister
13:39 Bachpeji was thinking about water connectivity. Just imagine air connectivity itself is going
13:46 to bring in huge benefit. Chinese economy, when it was growing double digit, one of the
13:52 reason people are asking what is the real cause of it. There are many, but one of the
13:56 principal cause was connectivity. Chinese could connect the hinterland to main area,
14:02 and now we are going to announce UDAN 3 in the next few days. We already completed a
14:08 bidding and bid is also over. We'll be connecting something like 254 new centers. It's unimaginable.
14:16 Thanks to Prime Minister, including we are connecting waterways, waterfronts. So now
14:22 the planes will land not only for airport, but on even waterports. So they will be landing
14:28 on water domes and they can actually take off from there. We already had announced the
14:32 policy regulation and now the bids have come. So far away areas, whether they are riverfronts,
14:38 whether they are seafronts, whether there are any water bodies, they all can use the
14:43 air connectivity in a significant way. So just imagine, this is what is going to happen
14:48 over a period of time. And therefore I was saying the outlook for business and for economy
14:54 is not only positive, but I would call it if I was a rating agency, it's triple A. So
14:59 therefore we can definitely go in and actually take advantage of it. Now the entrepreneurial
15:06 spirit of India drives the economy. And to make that entrepreneurial spirit work, we
15:12 have to remove regulation. And that's why we are also parallelly working under chairmanship
15:16 of Secretary DIPP. We have set aside a committee to make sure that we remove all unwarranted
15:23 regulation. So I request outlook, please tell us what more you want us to do and we'll do
15:28 it. Yesterday the angel tax, the issue was there. We already worked on it because by
15:34 definition angel tax should be angel informed. It should come like an angel. So we have already
15:39 done that and actually we'll be very happy to work with you. But there's always an issue
15:44 as we have seen the GST is going to result in tax to GDP ratio improving. It is going
15:51 to bring in some sort of a transparency in the process and more the revenues that we
15:57 generate for the government as well as for the corporates, that is going to drive the
16:01 growth. And therefore we must ensure that our compliance improves, our simplification
16:07 happens, our transformation will happen through these means by allowing the entrepreneurs
16:12 to grow. Because without entrepreneur, India's growth story will not be complete. And in
16:17 fact India's growth story began with entrepreneurship and it will be further accelerated with entrepreneurship.
16:23 And to make that entrepreneurship grow, we are fully committed to make sure that we will
16:28 do everything possible, removing all the hurdles and make it grow. And we are lucky to have
16:32 a very dynamic minister like Piyush Goyal in our cabinet which makes sure that we'll
16:37 drive and work on that process. So what is the leading edge? I will say India has a leading
16:42 edge because we have all that is required for India to grow actually in India. At the
16:50 time when so many economies are slowing down, so many economies are facing challenges, India
16:55 stands out in terms of growth and definitely we are still going to grow even at a faster
17:01 rate. All those changes that have happened in the last four years, structural changes,
17:06 will actually accelerate the reform process and the growth to follow in the next few years'
17:10 time. So I really look forward to it and therefore I congratulate Outlook for calling it leading
17:15 edge. So what is the leading edge? India is the leading edge and that's why we'll definitely
17:20 make sure it happens. I'm sure Outlook will continue to put the real positives of India
17:26 and that will be the real positive Outlook. Because one thing you must remember, if you
17:30 think negative, the best of doctors can never cure a patient. If you think positive, medication
17:38 works but more importantly that positive energy works. So for an economic Outlook, being see
17:44 all the positives that are available to us, use those positives as a driving force and
17:49 you will see not only our own health but also the health of the economy becomes far, far
17:53 better. So we really look forward to that and happening and therefore I congratulate
17:58 Outlook again for making this happen. I really once again congratulate my dear friend, Piyush
18:04 Goyalgi. He has been in a way, only by age, he's younger to me and I've been knowing him
18:09 for a long time and we have worked together on many issues. So same way, I'm very lucky
18:14 that he succeeded me as a power minister, he succeeded me as a railway minister, so
18:18 this is in safe hands. So I'm very happy about it. So I really look forward to working with
18:22 him and taking it forward. All the best to you, congratulations to you. Thank you very