Romancing the Decade: An exclusive panel discussion

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Ten years ago India was on the cusp of a new millennium, the world's most populist democracy was emerging from the twin shocks of the East Asian crises and the post Pokhran sanctions. We were also dealing with the weak monsoon, months of political uncertainty, week global economy which continued to be fragile and of course a tripling of crude prices. But India emerged victorious and we saw a decade of fast paced reforms and of course sustainable policy prescriptions.

What will the next decade look like that is going to be something that we discuss with our panellist Wilfried Aulbur, MD & CEO of Mercedes-Benz, Gautam Thapar, Chairman & CEO of Avantha Group, Akhil Gupta, CEO & MD of Bharti Enterprises, Arun Maria, Member-Planning Commission - Government of India, Amit Mitra, Secretary-General of FICCI.

Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the video.

Q: What is on the unfinished agenda as far as financial sector reforms are concerned to you mind at this point?
Thapar: I think the reform is in place but this is I think one of the few large equity markets in the world capital where it is purely an equity driven market. There is no market for corporate debt, there is no market for long dated debt, there is no market for that so at some point in time that starts becoming a big constrain. So I think we have to go out, develop a long-term bond market, develop a long-term financial market which then makes it much easier for the larger, bigger infrastructure projects to come up and figure out how that risk has to be spread around. There is enough money out there both in India and outside waiting to come in but there doesn't seem to be any activity in that market at all.
Q: To you mind what is the number one constrain that needs to be addressed because Kamal Nath was at the Auto Expo and said this should be the decade of infrastructure. That of course has been the big area of concern as far as India is concerned. Do you think that this will be the decade of infrastructure?
Mitra: I would submit that this would be the decade not only of infrastructure undoubtedly infrastructure and Kamal Nath is right but also of governance change. The critical issue today is whatever the government attempts to run at the ground level has serious issues. One way of doing it is privatise, which has its limitations. So can government reinvent itself in the next decade?
Q: Can government reinvent itself in the next decade. What is the sense that you are getting sitting in the hub of government?
Maira: I feel myself that we have to do it and I can see signs of the government - from the last few years actually but now more seriously with the new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) focusing on it. And what is governance is not government. Governance is the way things are done by a system and in governance is how the private sector, the public sector and the people together on the ground will make things happen. So we got to get models of governance which are quite different to the government doing and delivering - that's the whole point.
Q: Are you optimistic that we are seeing the way things are managed; we are putting systems in processes, in place like telecom for instance, a lot of political vagaries, a lot of political uncertainties have impacted the way that policies has turned out for telecom in the last few years, the 3G auction for instance, there is still no clarity on whether that 12th February, the deadline that actually been met whether it will be three or four slots. How optimistic are you about the fact that we are going to see this change and reinvention?
Gupta: I am very optimistic because you could always pickup few pieces and say we have been slow on this but the fact is it's been only 15 years that the telecom reform started and look at what this country has done in telecom and that could not have happen unless the government was supportive, the policies were there. So individual pieces could at times be delayed but on an overall basis I am very optimistic that with the resolve which the government has this decade should see some rapid action.

For complete panel discussion, watch videos.