Click to play videoNetwork 18 Shereen Bhan caught up with Bharti Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Sunil Bharti Mittal to talk about the Indian economy.
Here is the gist of the interview:
CNBC: When you step down as Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president you were cautious about where the Indian economy was headed and especially with respect to interest rates. We have actually not seen interest rates coming down, we have only seen them going up. Are you still optimistic that we will touch whether it is 7 or 7.5 per cent annual growth?
Sunil Bharti Mittal: Yes, I am very optimistic because the fundamentals are strong, the growth is still continuing and the Government has taken a strong note of the liquidity crisis that India is facing. You have seen CRR cuts after cuts, we have seen SLR cuts, Repo cuts and more is happening. The liquidity will be injected into the system.
CNBC: We have seen Indian industry presenting its wish list to the Prime Minister as well as Finance Minister this morning. In specific, outside of the red cards, what would you like them to do to make the situation better to facilitate growth at this point of time?
Sunil Bharti Mittal: I think one thing is fundamentally liquidity, great more liquidity so that interest rates can come down.
CNBC: What has been done is enough?
Sunil Bhari Mittal: No, more needs to be done. The Government acknowledges, but we must also acknowledge that they have moved quite fast. They have moved quite a lot of cuts last few weeks. We have been promised that the Government is standing like a rock behind the industry, the Government doesn’t want the industrial growth to slow down in this country and I think more action will happen in the coming days
CNBC: What was the sense you got in terms with the interest rates cycle and where they possibly headed because we have seen several cuts in CRR as well as Repo but the interest rates haven’t softened. Bankers are still reluctant to say where we are possibly seeing rates headed.
Sunil Bhari Mittal: I think we should wait for Finance Minister’s meeting with Banking Community tomorrow (Tuesday). We wish we hear something positive tomorrow.
CNBC: You talk about transformational changes and Bharti being at the precipice of most transformational changes. You have outlined your plans of being a conglomerate – what sort of an environment will look exciting to you as a new opportunity.
Sunil Bhari Mittal: We have actually a lot on the table – financial services, insurance and general insurance, retail – I think we just need to drive these plans.
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