Ambani: India needs disruptive policies

Speaking at a meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) in Delhi, India's richest man called for "disruptive policies" like the economic reforms of 1991 to drive industrialization and unite what he described as "the two Indias," according to a transcript.

Describing the two Indias, Reliance Industries Ltd. chairman Mukesh Ambani said, "One narrative lauds the Indian Success Story. It romanticizes our democratic traditions. It exults in the successes of the service sector and the emerging class of global leaders and entrepreneurs." Meanwhile, the other narrative "imagines the growth engine as a heartless mechanical monster that scatters millions behind. Not even allowing them the privilege of being spectators to this miracle of growth."

Both of them are compelling, and accurate, Ambani said.

"The India story is unsustainable without discovering policies and practical means of including these millions in the mainstream of our progress," the tycoon said. "Social schemes and welfare programs represent important signals. They are safety nets that are eventually palliatives, but not the cure."

For that, "Mere policy reforms to incrementally affect the status quo will be meaningless…. We will need disruptive policies, like the one which changed the future of India in 1991. The disruptive industrial policy that allowed India to compete with the rest of the world. Thus removing the shackles and freeing up India and the Indian minds."

However, apart from general stabs offering a larger role for big corporations like his own in fields that can have more direct effects on India's masses — like agriculture — the tycoon had little in the way of a prescription, and his admission of the existence of "two Indias" rang a bit hollow amid the general bombast.