mint
MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2010, DELHI ° WWW.LIVEMINT.COM
RAJAN BHARTI MITTAL/FICCI
I want young blood
in this industry body
B Y S HUCHI B ANSAL & We have suggested 49%
R ASUL B AILAY
·························
NEW DELHI
A s the newly appointed
president of the Federa-
tion of Indian Cham-
bers of Commerce and Indus-
try (Ficci), Rajan Bharti Mittal,
the vice-chairman and manag-
ing director of Bharti Enter-
prises Ltd, plans to bring
young blood into the industry
body and hopes to work with
the states to attract foreign in-
vestment. Edited excerpts:
You talked about pushing reforms
when you took charge last fort­
night. Can you elaborate?
The economic reforms are
still pending. The goods and
services tax (GST) is a big re-
form. After so many decades a
taxation reform is taking place
in this country. It is not only a
taxation reform, it is an admin-
istrative reform. It would sim-
plify how business is done.
Then there are reforms for the
states. That’s where the invest-
ment is.
We will hold a chief minis-
ters’ conference and tell them
what we believe as an industry
chamber on why their states
do or do not get traction (in-
vestment). Then there are re-
forms in education. If we open
up insurance, services and,
hopefully, retail, there would
be employment generation for
which we need literates.
Is there a framework on working
with the government on reforms?
We are very deeply engaged
on GST. We also want to make
India the destination for for-
Opening up: Rajan Bharti Mittal says an agency engaged by Ficci will
come up with a policy paper on how the organization should work.
mint INTERVIEW
eign direct investment (FDI).
This year, India will close at
around $30 billion (Rs1.37 tril-
lion today) in foreign invest-
ment.
In 2015, we want to get $75
billion. For that we have creat-
ed Invest India, a joint ven-
ture—a public-private partner-
ship—with the states. It has an
equity of Rs10 crore and Ficci
owns 51% while all the states
get half a percent of equity
each. This will work very close-
ly with the government...
Is it a lobby group?
We will not lobby for any-
body, we will be a facilitator.
Embassies have been spoken
PRADEEP GAUR/MINT
to. Wherever I travel, I will
speak about it...
Do you plan to reposition Ficci?
One big-ticket internal re-
form is that I want the advent
of youth in this body. That’s
something which is missing.
The young think that Ficci is
not for them.
Is it because of its old fuddy­duddy
kind of image?
...It may have been seen as
fuddy-duddy, but in the last
few years that has changed
with people such as Rajeev
Chandrasekhar and Harsh
Mariwala. We are creating a
youth forum to be headed by a
young and successful industri-
al entrepreneur. You will see
action—in the way we shape
our executive meetings...
LEADING THE NEWS 05
And you have engaged a consul­
tant to help you.
Yes. It is always good to get a
mind from outside. We have
engaged an agency to come
and talk about how the world
chambers work. It is still work-
-in-progress. It will come up
with a policy paper on how the
organization should work...
What, in your view, are the policy
changes required in retail?
(FDI) in multi-brand (stores).
In single brand retail, we (cur-
rently) have 51%.
Would you suggest 100% in single
brand retail?
Why not? Where is the com-
petition? Lots of companies
have come and gone back be-
cause they want 100%.
The issue must be seen dif-
ferently. It is believed that FDI
in retail will hurt the mom-
and-pop stores. But there is no
conflict between the two.
Mom-and-pop stores are
about 500 sq. ft. They keep no
more than 500-700 SKUs
(stock-keeping units, or types
of products) and employ one
person.
Today any branded retail
store is around 2,000 sq. ft,
keeps 2,500 SKUs and employs
12-15 people.
If major Indian corporate
houses are allowed in retailing,
today, they should be hurting
the same guy. The colour of
money should not affect in that
sense. We feel that FDI in retail
will bring knowledge, create
manufacturing bases and gen-
erate employment. Nobody
will get displaced. Despite the
Levis and Wranglers, 80% of
the jeans market is with Indian
local manufacturers.
But the government keeps post­
poning the retail FDI issue.
I think the mood is chang-
ing. PM (Prime Minister Man-
mohan Singh) spoke about re-
tailing in CMs’ (chief minis-
ters’) conference. Any idea
whose time has come, can’t be
stopped....
shuchi.b@livemint.com
Women’s Reservation
Bill debate to kick off
® FROM PAGE 3
in many other walks of life, in-
cluding as a vote base for polit-
ical parties.
If the Bill is passed, 179 of the
Lok Sabha’s 543 elected mem-
bers will be women, up from 59
in the current House. State leg-
islatures will see similar in-
creases in the number of wom-
en members.
The Bill has brought together
the Congress party that heads
the United Progressive Alliance
government, the main opposi-
tion Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) as well as the Left parties
and some regional formations.
Together, they have the num-
bers to pull it through the two
Houses.
But the 14-year-old proposal
continues to face a challenge
from parties that want it to in-
clude a sub-reservation for
women of other backward clas-
ses (OBCs).
“No one except (Congress
president) Sonia Gandhi and a
few others are genuinely honest
about the Bill,” said a Congress
member of Parliament on con-
dition of anonymity. “Most of
the others feel threatened.”
With good reason. The Bill
would ensure that more than
100 current MPs won’t return to
Parliament after the next gener-
al election.
“Opposing the Bill will be po-
litically incorrect, also there is a
whip; but backing this Bill is
suicidal,” the MP said.
Tathagata Satpathy, an MP
from the Biju Janata Dal, anoth-
er party that has declared sup-
port for the legislation, said the
Bill won’t serve the purpose of
empowering women. He is
among those who say the deci-
sion to give more seats to wom-
en should have been left to po-
litical parties. “They would have
(then) started grooming women
leaders as winnability would be
crucial.”
But a parliamentary standing
committee on personnel, public
grievances, law and justice,
which submitted a report on the
Bill in December, said the deci-
sion cannot be left to the par-
ties. The panel backed the idea
of reserving 33% of seats for
women, and rotating the actual
reserved seats election after
election.
But critics say this only weak-
ens the Bill. “The lottery system
of allotment of one-third seats
and rotation of it would in turn
uproot many men and women
candidates from their constitu-
encies and would empower
none. The very basis of repre-
sentation of people would be vi-
olated,” said Madhu Kishwar, a
women’s rights activist.
Parties that depend on OBC
votes, such as the Samajwadi
Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal
and the Bahujan Samaj Party,
among others, have called for a
quota-within-quota, or a reser-
vation for OBC women within
the Bill.
“The introduction of this Bill
is a conspiracy of the Congress
and the BJP to reduce the repre-
sentation of the backward
castes and the minorities in the
Lok Sabha,” Samajwadi Party
general secretary and spokes-
person Mohan Singh said.
In the current format, the Bill
does make space for the consti-
tutional reservation of sched-
uled castes and scheduled
tribes (SCs/STs), providing that
if a reserved SC/ST seat comes
up on the rotation chart of seats
reserved for women under the
Bill, then the candidates would
have to be SC/ST women.
liz.m@livemint.com