The government needs to focus on investment and exports, Kiran Shaw said.
Biocon chief Kiran Shaw today said the International Monetary Fund's markdown of India's growth story is "not surprising" and the government needs to focus on investment and exports to put the flagging economy back on track. There is a need to bridge the trust deficit to bring back investment, she added.
Laying down some of the roadmarks to stabilise the economy from its freefall, Ms Shaw told NDTV: "The government needs to increase expenditure on infrastructure. This will help move cogs of the economy. The government needs to divest its PSUs and free up capital. The government needs to build trust. Trust deficit has to be bridged. It has to invite private investment in infrastructure."
The International Monetary Fund has slashed India's growth forecast to 4.8 per cent, a cut of 1.3 per cent in just three months. Gita Gopinath, the Chief Economist of the IMF, has told NDTV that the slowdown in India will have an effect on the global growth story and it has pushed down the global forecast by "0.1 per cent".
Ms Shaw said the IMF's conclusion is not surprising, since the growth figures have been declining sharply over the last several quarters.
"We are seeing a clear decline in agriculture and in industry. The only sector that is showing some stability is services and even that is lower than expected," she said, adding that the government needs to take urgent measures to "quickly revive the engine".
Asked about the controversy over Union minister Piyush Goyal's snub to Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, who has announced big investments in India, Ms Shaw said she was not aware of the context in which the minister made the statements.
But the government, she said, needs to create an environment where people feel that this is a "good destination" for investment.
"So far, I don't think that India is being viewed that way under the current context because there is a lot of aggression in terms of tax," the Biocon chief said, citing the example of Vodafone.
"You need to look at making India an investment-friendly environment. The government has to make an all-out effort to attract investment. You need consistent policies and make it a welcome economy for investment," she said.