Indian firms send SoS to Centre

Captains of Indian industry have send an SoS to the government to form a high powered committee to prepare the country to deal with global headwinds following Donald Trump taking over as US President and Brexit at the horizon.

“The situation is very fluid. Currently what is going to happen is not clear. But there is an impending concern about it,” Ficci president Pankaj Patel told this newspaper in an interview.

He said that Ficci has represented to the government that the committee should have senior government officials and leading industrialist of the country to discuss and debate and be prepared with challenges as they come. “The committee should brain storm how we should protect India from these challenges that we might face. We don't know whether we will face but if we are going to face then we should be fully prepared,” said Mr Patel.

He said that India's diplomatic relation- ship globally are very unique and hoped that the impact on India should be minimal.

With Trump Presidency and Brexit pointing towards growing protectionist tendencies in the world, Economic Survey had also expressed concern that it could hit India’s growth. “Given that India’s growth ambitions of 8-10 percent require export growth of about 15-20 percent, any serious retreat from openness on the part of India’s trading partners would jeopardise those ambitions,” the survey had said.