Chennai, Jan 1 (IANS) India has to address three major deficits – governance, regulatory and ethical- if the country has to progress, the economy continue to log nine percent growth and the gains of last two decades are not lost, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Saturday.
‘We were slow to realise that when the economy grows at nine percent it cannot have huge deficits in power, road, shipping and air transport. These sectors have to keep pace so that the economic growth could be sustained,’ he said here at the centenary celebrations of The Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He said there is a yawning gap in development of power and roads sector that needs to be bridged failing which inefficiencies would get built in and there will be tendency on the part of the industries to find other ways to maximise profits.
This deficit of governance has to be dealt urgently to sustain the economic growth rate, Chidambaram said.
Vast sectors of the economy are still unregulated while the growth and stability has come from the regulated sectors like banking, he said, adding sectors like real estate, mining, transport offers vast opportunity for profit and there is an urgent need to put proper regulations.
Referring to the business units chasing the goal of maximising profits which in turn has resulted in ethics taking a downward slide over the years, he wondered how there can be growth as well as inclusive growth in the absence of ethics in business.
He urged the industry to bridge the ethical deficit that has been exposed in the last few months.
India has changed in the last 20 years and all these will be set to naught if these deficits are not addressed immediately, he send.
‘We ended 2010 with a sense of despondency. In the new year we have to reflect what should be done to mend things and to do business,’ Chidambaram said.
