'Budget lays out cohesive roadmap to economic growth'

Vivek Gambhir, Managing Director, Godrej Consumer Products Limited

Overall, this is a convincing and responsible budget and the Government’s approach to facilitating growth is quite ground-breaking. The Finance Minister has walked the tightrope between fiscal prudence and much-needed reforms to kickstart the economy. At the same time, the budget lays out a cohesive roadmap to create a sustainable growth platform for the future, that should hopefully enable double digit growth in a few years. Transformative announcements such as changes in bankruptcy law and creating a social security type pension network will provide major impetus to growth ahead. Proactive efforts to drive demand and increase consumption, will bring FMCG recovery back on track. Investments in the MNREGA and infrastructure augur well for rural consumers. On the employment front, we hope to see much needed job creation resulting from ‘Make In India’, reviving sectors like manufacturing, the 70,000 crore increase in infrastructure investments and focus on skilling and education. Encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship through initiatives like the MUDRA Bank, will add to this. The definitive deadline of April 2016 for the GST is reassuring, and driving successful implementation will be critical to fast-track growth. Several initiatives are also being undertaken to improve the ease of doing business. These will speed up implementation and increase investor confidence. We now need to ensure strong on- ground execution to untap the tremendous potential of India and usher in the promise of ‘ache din’.