In an interview to Mitali Mukherjee, chairman and co-founder of TeamLease Services Ltd, Manish Sabharwal, said he didn’t agree with the prevailing clamour for more fiscal and monetary action, as the government had limited room to manoeuvre.
However, in order to build a strong growth narrative, India needed to strike hard with reform on the banking, labour and farm front.
He also disagreed with the observation that there was an employment problem and said there was more of a salaried incentive mismatch.
Sabharwal said the urgent need was to use the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to axe through copious policies that restrained entrepreneurial growth. He believed the recent labour bills, while not perfect, were an important step in that direction.
He also said in order to bring about a cleanse in the banking system, more bank licences should be given out, to encourage competition amongst lenders. Sectors that had seen a slew of defaults such as real estate needed a complete overhaul.
Sabharwal said the recently announced education policy was extremely laudable and would go a long way in creating genuine reform.
“The fact that India is trying hard is very clear to global investors,” he said, “but our choices must now reflect our hopes and not our fears.”