Davos 2023: Bureaucracy is scared of taking decisions, says JSW Group's Sajjan Jindal

Instances of retired bureaucrats getting targeted or even arrested for decisions taken during their service tenure are leading to a situation wherein the bureaucracy is scared of taking decisions, said Sajjan Jindal of JSW Group.

While speaking to Business Today at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, the chairman of the JSW Group said that the policy makers need to understand that growth will come from private sector industries and it needs to be supported.

“Growth will come from private sector as the accountability that is there in the private sector, it is not there in the public sector,” said Jindal, while highlighting the fact that there are so many operational constraints in government companies that they are unable to take a decision.

“Hamari jo bureaucracy hai usko ye samajhna hai ki jo industry hai vahi desh ko aagey badhayegi… Aaj bureaucracy decision nahi le paati hai (Our bureaucracy needs to understand that industries will take our economy ahead, today bureaucracy is unable to take decisions),” he added.

He further added that this is because they fear that if they take a decision today and it turns out to be wrong in future they can be arrested even if they have retired since there have been such instances in the past.

On a different note, he said that while companies are looking at various options as part of their overall China+1 strategy, there is a new approach wherein companies are looking at “China+1 minus China”.

“Nowadays, people are saying that it is China+1 minus China. That means China is cut out so some new country has to stand in place of China. So, we don't want to buy from China,” he said while adding that India has the best chance to occupy that place.

“Whether it is microchips, whether it is spare parts components… India obviously has the best chance because India has a very large manufacturing base and can grow rapidly. I think the government is extremely keen to develop the manufacturing part of India. Unfortunately, India's manufacturing as part of the GDP is only 15%. This needs to go to 25%. China’s (manufacturing) is even more than 25% of their GDP. And that is where I see a real bright spot in India because we don't have an option, but to go to from 15% to 25%,” said Jindal.

“I can see that India is truly in the making, truly growing and… ye dashak Bharat ka dashak hai (this is actually India’s decade),” he said.

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