Government-Industry Collaboration Key to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030: Mr Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises Ltd at CII
“I believe that if Industry works together, in partnership with the Government, Civil Society and NGO’s, India truly has the potential to achieve all Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The task is not huge, but can certainly be achieved through prudent collaboration,” said Mr Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises Limited. He was speaking at the session on ‘Charting a Course for India@100’ during the Annual Business Summit of the Conferederation of Indian Industry (CII) held at New Delhi.
Laying out his vision of India’s developmental journey over the next 25 years and beyond, he re-affirmed India’s emergence as an economic powerhouse, while also urging Indian Industry to not neglect the bottom quartile of India’s population, residing in 112 aspirational districts across India. “The sad reality is that not much attention has been paid to development across these districts. If they were to have a growth of just 2%, they would contribute to over 4 lakh crore in GDP for India as a whole”, he said.
He noted how despite the Government spending 48 lakh crore in areas such as health, education and water availability, India still lacked in achieving many of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Proposing a radical redefinition of India’s governance and delivery model, he suggested viewing the developmental challenge through a “systems thinking lens” across Community, Information, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) and talent systems currently operating in districts. He cited remarkable improvements noted across key metrics in districts such as Jhunjhunu, where Government and Industry have worked hand in hand to improve the outcomes in the education sector and other social areas.
Highlighting low CSR allocations by companies in India’s aspirational districts relative to their huge population, Mr Piramal urged the Indian Industry to do much more to bring transformational change in these districts. Echoing the words of Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added that becoming ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047 will require “Sabka Prayaas”, concluding his address by reinforcing his belief that Indian Industry can and will help in ensuring a more holistic development model across the country.
In his opening remarks, Mr R Mukundan, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Tata Chemicals Limited, underscored the achievements of CII’s India@75 initiative, noting its fulfillment of key vision elements. He also mentioned about a meticulously crafted blueprint for India’s journey to India@100 over the next 25 years, being prepared through an extensive pan India exercise, involving ideas from over 1.5 million people across the nation.
He also highlighted the tremendous potential for creating a multiplier effect of the government investments in social development through industry partnerships. “I believe that the central message is threefold - we need to Converge, Collaborate and also use power of Digital. Industry and Government working together will act as an unprecedented force multiplier”, he added.
18th May 2024
New Delhi