“Do we have money to fund our growth? The answer is yes. The day we can allocate our savings more properly we can obviate foreign capital, though we would require foreign technology,” Shah said at an interactive session at the MCCI Capital Market Conclave.
He cited net gold imports worth USD 373 billion in the last 21 years while explaining the unproductive use of domestic capital.
Shah also supported “public-private partnerships for state-owned firms to unlock value” and cited the example of Hindustan Zinc, where productivity jumped 17 times and over Rs 10,000 crore was contributed to the government exchequer since the management control was handed over to the private sector.
“We didn’t privatise Air India when it was a monopoly. Now, when it had to be divested, the government had to absorb a loss of Rs 70,000 crore,” Shah said.
On free trade agreements, he said India should leverage more on its digital infrastructure, services and labour, which the country has in surplus.
Another noted capital market expert Saurabh Mukherjea, founder and chief investment officer of Marcellus Investment Managers, said that some powerful silent changes that had happened in the last few years were game changers for long-term growth for India. These are physical infrastructure, taxation and banking reforms and strengthening digital infrastructure.
He pointed out that 80 per cent of the corporate profit is driven by just 20 companies in India and this trend will continue.
Shah also called for a conducive regulatory environment to enable growth.
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