Raman Ramachandran, CMD, BASF India and Ranjit Shahani, vice-chairman and managing director Novartis India share their views on the Budget.
Below is the verbatim transcript of Raman Ramachandran & Ranjit Shahani's interview with Sonia Shenoy & Anuj Singhal on CNBC-TV18.
Anuj: As India head of a global MNC what is your first take on the Budget and the provisions that were made in that?
Shahani: Budget is very strategic, it is obviously work in progress, nine pillars which the Finance Minister mentioned are great. Being sector specific certainly, in the area of healthcare it was a disappointment because while the insurance cover for BPL families is good and should be done, beyond that there was nothing for pharmaceutical and healthcare in the Budget.
Remember, this is the third Budget of this government and what was promised that 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) would be spend on healthcare, today it is only 0.8 percent. So, there is no movement on that and to that extent I think it is a big disappointment. We have a big catch up game to play there which we haven’t been begun as yet.
Sonia: What about you, are you disappointed as well?
Ramachandran: It has been more mixed because we have exposure to three large industries which the Budget has addressed — the agriculture which is the rural sector so we welcome all the focus on the rural sector and the kind of initiatives that are being taken to increase the farmer's income which boards well for one of our businesses.
The others segment that we look at is construction where we have a construction chemicals business which caters to this and again all the focus on the structure and the outlay really is positive for us.
We are disappointed with the cess on automobiles which I believe might dampen because that is another industry segment that we are a supplier too, so that is the downside.
Anuj: Just on the cess, do you think all the cess and the Make in India theme, they do not gel with each other, is that what you are trying to say?
Ramachandran: That is not what I am trying to say. I think there would be, the cess would probably dampen the appetite to buy cars, to what extent, we have to see. So, I am not connecting Make in India campaign and this.
Sonia: The two of you sat through a Make in India panel. In fact you were the panellists on that. What was the discussion surrounding, what kind of debates did you guys have and what were the key concerns with regards to Make in India and how much could it really help in terms of growth, etc?
Shahani: First of all, I think it is one of the greatest initiatives that you had in the recent past because India moved from an agrarian economy to a services economy and we skipped Make in India manufacturing. But, we should not only look at it purely from a Make in India point of view, but also Design in India and Invent in India. And also look at the whole supply chain which follows this Make in India because you cannot do that in isolation. There are also challenges on skilling the blue collar workers, there are challenges on financing. I think there is a whole ecosystem which should come together to make it successful and there are many elements around it. They all have to fall in place. I think we have got a branding done well. Now, we have got to have some action and execution on the ground and improve the ease of business much more than what it is at the moment.
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