Friday, December 23, 2005

McKinsey - Manmohan Singh Interview

on McKinsey Quarterly

Top things in the PM's mind: Infrastructure,Poverty,Education and Health.

Some important policy considerations

  • Manufacturing has to be improved considerably to sustain the services growth. Many people have to be moved from agriculture to value adding agri foods type businesses.
  • Infrastructure improvement is required in such a huge scale that it is not going to be possible without private investment
  • Policy thinking is all in place, but the coalition government and the federal system is just going slow down the implementation. PM hopes he can convince the Left to adopt same policies in the center as in West Bengal.

It looks FDI in retail is not going to be an easy decision. It could easily become this government's 'India Shining' campaign. If you have travelled by a bus in India, you cannot miss the innumerable small shops selling almost the same things in all the small towns and villages you pass by. If a WalMart enters and sweeps out all these shops, it is just a death warrant for any government.

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