What kind of policy changes, in terms of what SEBI and in terms of what other stock markets do, would you recommend? A couple of guys from The Boston Consultancy Group have written a book and it speaks about trends of growth in India, China and other places. It’s focused on the middle class and how it will grow. There were a couple of observations and one of the interesting observations was about cars. Luxury cars have picked up rapidly and Jaguar, AUDI’s, BMW are growing. China is now investing in India. This proves the fact that even if India’s growth rate is not 8 or 9 % percent it will definitely be higher in the future. People from middle class will move to rich class. I anticipate that with this transition people will make multiple investments in the country and it will trigger some growth. When you talk of India, China and their middle class do you see India over taking China in 20 -25 years? I think the question to be asked about China is, whether it will it grow old before it grows rich and today the answer is, it certainly seems so. But I don’t see us overtaking them in next 25 years. I do not know the demographics which could have a significant impact. With the one family one child policy, people may suddenly think that they do not have enough working people in the household. The question is whether India will be able to take advantage of this position too. But the short answer to this question is No; it won’t be able to overtake China in next 20-25 years. PSUs are very important in the market. What is your take on that? If you go back in history, there was a big petrochemical company IPC which was sold
to Reliance and now it is nowhere to be seen. There is MTNL which is huge, but if you compare it with other telecom companies and what they have accomplished, it does not match up. Then there is the Steel Authority of India which is large but soon it may not be even in the top four or five companies. It’s not only in manufacturing but also in financial services; many companies are struggling to be in the top five. It basically depends on how the company and people respond to the policies, how the management is and how the people are. Talking about sustainability, BSE has introduced BSE Greenex which is its own sustainability index. Dow Jones, on the other hand, has had its own sustainability index for a long time now. Would you say that we are late in recognising sustainability as an important issue? Not many banks are doing anything about it and many do not know about it. Where do you think we are lacking? Everything happens in its own time. It’s like in the first generation people looked for food. Then the second generation went beyond food and looked for acceptance in the society etc. The third generation grew up and pursued art and cultural. We learn from others. We progress in stages. The good thing is there is Greenex now. It’s a first step. When companies undertake CSR activities, their costs go up. Some industries like the chemical industry, pharmaceuticals etc. change their manufacturing processes to promote environment safety. The problem is that competing firms not following sustainability have lesser costs. So how do we make investors invest in a firm pursuing sustainability, as profits may go down? Change always takes some time. People will realize the importance of sustainability in due course of time. With greater awareness, greater