Nothing has changed on the ground, says Deepak Parekh

Industry leader Deepak Parekh, on Wednesday, said that impatience was creeping(Move slowly) in among businessmen as nothing had changed on the ground in the first nine months of the Modi government. He also said that during this period, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had had a run of good luck for commodity prices to have plummeted(Drop sharply) unexpectedly to record lows.

In an interview to PTI, Mr. Parekh said: “I think there is still a lot of optimism among the people of the country and among the industrialists and entrepreneurs that the Modi government will be good for business, for progress, for reducing corruption. They think this government means business on all these fronts… However, after nine months, there is a little bit of impatience creeping in as to why no changes are happening and why this is taking so long having effect on the ground”.

Citing(Make reference to) delays HDFC Bank, of which he is Chairman, faced in obtaining approvals required for raising funds, Mr. Parekh said he had seen no improvement in the ease of doing business. “To raise some capital in HDFC Bank it took more time this time than earlier years to get approvals.”

He said that after the Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved it, HDFC Bank’s proposal was sent to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for consideration. “People were helpful but processes have not changed…we are a 20-year-old organisation and we are within the limits [of 74 per cent foreign investment cap]… Why can’t they change these things...Why can’t the administrative controls be relaxed.”

Mr. Parekh, who has been on various government-appointed panels, said Mr. Modi’s pet initiative the ‘Make in India’ could not succeed unless it was made easier for people to do business here and the decisions were fast-tracked.

“The thing is that our Prime Minister had a lucky period in these nine months. The world commodity prices are at all-time low which help India the most,” Mr. Parekh said.

Earlier too, Mr. Parekh was among the first industry leaders to speak up on the ‘policy paralysis’ in the UPA government as a spate(A sudden forceful flow) of scams led to delays in decision-making that hurt business.