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ET Global Business Summit 2015

PM exudes honesty ofpurpose and immense

confidence. The country hasgreat expectations from him

RAHUL BHATIACEO, InterGlobe Enterprises

PM is detail-oriented. Thegovt is working hard in anumber of areas some

societal and some enonomic

SUMANT SINHACEO, ReNew Power

CANDIDCAMERA An Evening to Remember for the Capital

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I was expecting PM to talkabout aviation. I am sure as agreat leader his focus is toensure overall development

PHEE TEIK YEOHCEO, Vistara

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Whats your perception on Modi?

And him as a PM?

Ive met a number of statesmen like

Merkel, Cameron, and lots of presi-

dents. I have met all PMs (in India).

But he (Modi) is quite unique. He is

hands-on and not inhibited by any

ideological conceptions.

But isnt he shaped by a particular

ideology?

He is shaped by an experience. But

that experience is not an ideology.

To him in the end it is to get the poli-

cies together and see what you can

do to push (growth).

Are you on talking terms with

Amartya Sen?

No, I havent seen him in a while.

But there is a joke. One guy tells

another: These two people have not

been on talking terms. So the other

guy said I just heard them shouting

at each other. (laughs)Some fellow had suggested that

I was jealous of Professor Sen

because he had the Nobel (Prize)

and I didnt. If I was going to be ir-

ritable, irascible and so on, every

time I dont get something, I will be

in infirmity all the time. Who gets

all whatever he or she wants? Even

he hasnt. He was bypassed by the

1991 reforms. Professor Sen says

that growth is a fetish. He was not

for DFI (Direct Foreign Investment).

On trade he is lukewarm. But not for

it. And now when he thought (in the

UPA regime) he was coming back

with the Sonia Gandhi sort of people,

he was pushing for social expendi-

ture. I am also for social expenditure.

But in a country with huge amount

of poverty, even if you shoot all the

rich people you may never be able

to have an impact on poverty. Prof

Senkilled UPA 2.

What advice will you give to

(vicechairman of Niti Udyog) Prof

Panagariya?I think he and Raghuram Rajan

should be able to work things out.

I think we are at a lucky juncture.

I would do what Raghu didlower

interest rates. Because inflation is

less, oil price has fallen and so on. Its

from the demand side that we are

having a problem.

What are your views on Rajan, es-

pecially given this recurring chat-

ter that this government is uncom-

fortable with Rajan

I couldnt tell you. But in my opin-

ion he is a pretty able guy. Raghu

comes from corporate finance. He

has learnt some macroeconomics.

Even if he makes a mistake once in

a while, it really doesnt matter. One

important point which you should

knowI was discussing with FM

(Jaitley)is that even if budget is not

done right, nobody is going to be at-

taching much importance to it. There

is no possibility of India being down-

graded as changes are going on.

You have had a lot of facetime with

Modi. Did Modi talk to you about

some kind of a role in the govern-

ment or on the periphery?

No. I am 80. It might happen,

but it is highly unlikely. Now that you

have a superb man in Panagariya,

I could prepare a report, like I did

for Manmohan Singh in 1993. But

thats just writing a report. Because

at the age of 80, I cant work like

he expects me to work. I fall asleep

often. I have done enough for two

lifetimes(laughs loudly)He (PM)obviously seems to like me. He came

down (after the speech) and said

kem cho (How are you?) in Gujarati.

He didnt have to do it.

Do you worry that the fringe ele-

ment in the Sangh Parivar is be-

coming increasingly emboldened?

There is always this little streak

which talks about how we did the

Pushkar Viman and the Ganesha

and the plastic surgery. But I think

as soon as we (improve) the current

situation on the economic front, you

are not going to need that kind of

rubbish to boost your ego.

If you were to describe him (PM) ina word, what would that be?

In one word? Its very hard, I will

just say hes Gods gift to India. I

have met all PMs here. But I have

never met anybody like him.

What impresses you most?

Its his total lack of ideological

preoccupation. His great desire

to get the country moving. He iscommitted to removing poverty.

He emerged from poverty, right! A

point which (Congress leader) Mani

Shankar Aiyar missed is that if you

are running a tea store, it means

you are poor. Once in Ahmedabad, I

discussed this with him: You have to

tell people what Gujarat model is. It

is not just accumulating money. Its

using it for social spending, like the

Dutch Burghers.

How should Manmohan Singh be

regarded in history?

I think he is a fantastically coura-

geous man. I think the Gang of two

(in Congress) must have told him, if

you resign, the party will be hurt,

the country will be hurt. And he is

gullible enough to believe that.

He is not what he used to be. Its

a very heavy problem. Going from

big success to this situation. I think

history in the long run will be kind

to him. Right now I have a suspicion,

they are all (in the Congress Par ty)

living under a cloud Cuckoo land.

At Scindia lecture you said FDI in

multi-brand retail will come

Yes, I will give you a case of wine

- Indian wine. Not foreign wine

(laughs).

How much time do you give that?

I will give it a year. Because the

great advantage is that the party

was always dependent on the shop-

keepers and traders. But now he has

got such a huge constituency for it.

Young peoplewho are not petty

shopkeepers. They want a forward

movement. Now we can afford to in-

dulge in Direct Foreign Investment.

1. Jagdish Bhagwati with Suresh Prabhu, Railway minister2. Sunil Bahadur Thapa, Minister of International Trade, Nepal3. (L) Uma Shankar Bhartia and Ratul Puri4. (L) Sunil Munjal, Jagdish Bhagwati, Gautam Adani and Sunil Bharti Mittal

JAGDISH BHAGWATIEconomist

Modi isGods Gift

to India

Q&AEXCLUSIVE

Jagdish Bhagwati laughs at the notion of a role inthe Modi government. At the age of 80, says thecelebrated economist and Columbia Universitys

professor of economic and law, he is prone to fallingasleep and is unlikely to be able to put the kind of

hours the prime minister demands from his topaides. He is also willing to bet a case of wineIndian

winethat Modi will open multi-brand retail to foreigninvestors within a year because the mandate has given

the PM a constituency beyond petty shopkeepers.Edited excerpts from an interview with ET:

Amartya Senkilled UPA 2...Hesays growth is afetish. He was notfor Direct ForeignInvestment

On Amartya Sen

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi withTimes Group MD Vineet Jain2. (L) BJP National Spokesperson SambitPatra. Punj Lloyd Group Chairman AtulPunj.3. ReNew Power CEO Sumant Sinha.Union Minister of Rural DevelopmentBirendra Singh.4. IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh. Ex-member of Planning Commission ArunMaira.5. Essar Group Vice-Chairman Ravi Ruia.Max India Chairman Analjit Singh.6. Colvyn Harris of JWT.7.PwC India chairman Deepak Kapoor.Raman Sindhu and CEO of ISB MohaliPradeep Singh (extreme right)8. Congress MP Rajiv Shukla and FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley.9. Ambassador of the NetherlandsAlphonsus Stoelinga. Hans-Paul Brkner,Chairman, BCG.10. Ashok Chawla, Chairperson,Competition Commission of India

(CCI). Ravi Narain, non-executive vice-chairman of the NSE.

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