Transparency and openness key factors for doing business in India: GE South Asia head

How could India attract more business and investment? By introducing increased transparency and openness in the system says Banmali Agrawala, president and CEO for GE South Asia. He said, “Foreign companies would be more optimistic in doing business in the country if they find the conditions to be more favourable.”
"I feel better ... with transparency and openness in the system. You at least are sure you will not be shortchanged. This should provide encouragement for global players. The mindshare within GE, in terms of what is happening in India, is more upbeat now," he told the Economic Times in an interview.
GE itself is upbeat about the pace of work in the railways, oil, gas and renewable energy sectors, where it sees heightened activity led by state enterprises and progress in government orders for equipment, but it expects more progress in the power sector, he said.
General Electric (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate corporation and operates in power and water, oil and gas, energy management, aviation, healthcare, transportation, and capital segments.
The company has operated in India for more than a century, expects to grow two to three times the rate of GDP growth, something it hasn't achieved in the country in recent years.
Agrawala said that in some countries, international companies had done well with negotiated deals with governments after thrashing out various issues with the authorities.
Agrawala said GE was happy by the progress in the railway ministry led by Suresh Prabhu as the ministry was sorting out various issues and had moved well in a large tender for 1,000 locomotives over 10 years.
He said the oil and gas sector, particularly the exploration efforts of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has made good progress under the new government. "I hope they will continue down this path. The government should take advantage of the fall in international prices of oil," he said, referring to the decline in costs of oilfield equipment and services.
Among GE's areas of business, power sector has still not turned around, he said. The sector's key issue was the poor health of the state electricity boards, which were reporting huge losses, he said.
Sector experts say that the losses of state utilities are a big bottleneck because they often prefer to cut supplies to reduce losses. This leads to a situation where consumers face blackouts while power plants have surplus capacity because the intermediary is inefficient and financially insolvent.
"I would have liked to see more movement in the power sector. The fundamental challenge is the state electricity boards. Some solution has to be found. We may give coal, fuel and all that, but how do you address the issue of the SEBs? Something dramatic needs to be done," he said. He said foreign firms would be willing to invest in India's power sector, but for this to happen the key problems of the sector would have to be sorted out. He said there was no dearth of investible funds in the world, and the Indian power sector could be a good destination if the key issues were addressed.
Agrawala also said that the government was responsive and communicative although it preferred meetings with industry platforms, not individual companies.
He said GE had raised issues with the government, and it has always received replies to its letters from the authorities.

(Image: Indiatimes)