India Inc sees a global crisis manager in new prez

India Inc sees the election of Barack Obama as an opportunity for the US to regain moral leadership and use that power to comprehensiv

ely address not just the global financial crisis, but the environmental and political crises as well.

While some business leaders are concerned about Mr Obama’s promises to keep jobs in America, finance minister P Chidambaram said the Indian software and information technology-enabled services industry should not worry over Obama’s policies on outsourcing. “Once he is in office, he will realise that this is an inter-connected world and countries have to work together,“ the minister said. Mr Chidambaram said that he was speaking as an individual and not for the Indian government.

“I do believe he understands that the global financial crisis cannot be resolved by building ‘fortress America’ and that protectionist and inward-looking policies will only hurt the United States in the long run. He will inevitably understand and respect the strategic potential of his country’s relationship with India, and work to strengthen it,” said Mahindra Group vice-chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra.

For industry bodies, the biggest expectation would be the reversal of the decline of the US economy. “He has talked about pumping in $50 billion and allowing tax breaks to the middle class. The revival of the US economy is critical not only to us, but the global economy as well,” said Ficci president Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

CII director-general Chandrajit Banerjee said India and the US can work together on each and every one of these challenges. “The bilateral agenda is enormous and the potential for cooperation is limitless,” he said.

But the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Fieo) cautioned against a possible increase in protectionist measures. Fieo President Ganesh Kumar Gupta said that if US increases agriculture subsidies as stated by Mr Obama, it will give a jolt to agro exports from India and other developing countries.

Fieo has also expressed apprehensions that the US may tighten protectionist measures which may hamper exports to the US, albeit marginally. But Ficci president said that our exporters should be prepared to take advantage of this coming resurgence of US demand and the government must ensure that our exporters are enabled for this coming opportunity he added.

In respect of policies related to climate change, Nobel laureate Dr RK Pachauri said that Obama has not only been very clear in emphasising the need for the US to engage in global solutions to meet climate change challenges, but also in respect of bringing about a major shift in US energy policy. “It would help greatly if the new president were to announce a coherent and forward looking policy soon after he takes office,” he said .

Source: EconomicTimes