Young CEOs Brainstorm with government at Niti Aayog Meet

Niti Aayog meet Eustan Vnetures

Why does the country have so many regulators? Who evaluates their performance? Senior cabinet ministers that included finance minister Arun Jaitley faced a volley of queries from young business leaders during an interaction organised by Niti Aayog.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the 200 young business leaders for an informal interaction later in the evening and will attend their detailed presentation on Tuesday.

In a two-day deliberation that began on Monday, Niti Aayog brought together young CEOs to chart out a blueprint for ‘New India’ and drive transformation across sectors.

Brought together under a ‘Champions of Change’ initiative, the CEOs brain-stormed through the day and interacted with secretaries to various ministries and departments besides cabinet ministers to chart out a policy blueprint.

The group included Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, Nikhil Nanda of Escorts, Avni Biyani of Future Retail, Sangeeta Reddy of Apollo Hospitals, Bunty Bohra of Goldman Sachs, Sanjay Nayar of KKR, Priya Nair of Hindustan Unilever, Sanjeev Bhikchandani of Naukri-.com, and Sumant Sinha of ReNew Power, among others.

“Champions of Change” CEOs have been divided into six groups, each dealing with an issue that is a challenge before country’s policy makers. These included doubling farmers incomes,creating cities of tomorrow, make in India, reforming financial sector, world class infrastructure and New India-2022.
This is the second part of the initiative

Last week saw 212 startup founders and young entrepreneurs brainstorming and presenting their policy prescription before the Prime Minister.

Jaitley, who had in the last budget brought legislative change to bring about convergence among regulators and bringing down their number, said the country needed regulators. “We need regulators. But, where work is inadequate, three or four bodies perform job of one regulator,” Jaitley said. The minister elaborated on how Jan Dhan has led to financial inclusion in the country. “Jan Dhan has proved to be a great launching pad to enable Financial Inclusion in India,” he said, according to a Niti Aayog tweet

The Niti Aayog said the country needed private sector investment and jobs. “India’s big focus is on creating good jobs,” said Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya. He said the private sector has to deliver to create well-paid, high productivity jobs.

“India is an oasis of growth in a stagnant global economy. The government has so far made massive investments. Now, we need private sector investment!,” said Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog.

Champions Of Change for building cities of tomorrow recommended Right to Energy for every citizen and solar panel on every rooftop. Niti Aayog said partnership between government and dynamic CEOs was critical to address development challenges.

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